Burnt Strawberry
by 1blackcat
Summary: IchixOC : Chad's adopted cousin, Karime, has moved to Japan from Mexico, she seems to be a normal girl but as time goes by Ichigo notices there's more to her than meets the eye and what does she have to do with Aizen and the Hougyoku? bad summary I know..
1. A New Start

_**A/N: Hello!! hehe! okay, so this is my **_**very first **_**fanfic ever in my whole entire life!! **_**I**_**sn't that great? I'm so excited!! Okay but anyways… so as much as I wanted to make this an IchiRuki it just wouldn't come to me, but I promise that I will write one someday! (I already have an idea! The problem is putting it on paper… **_**^_^**_** )….. Right so anyways this is an IchixOC… this chapter is pretty long and I'm not really sure it's even necessary… (Ichi won't come in until the next chapter…) although I would thank you all if you read it and gave me some feed back!! Like I said this is my first fanfic ever so please be gentle with me **_**^_^**_** … those of you who don't feel like reading all this can find a relatively short summary at the bottom!**_

_**Okay!! Onward to victory my little fanfic!! Oh and by the way this is gonna be somewhat OOC (or maybe a lot OOC) and somewhat AU… and please ignore any inconsistencies, its all for the good of the fic… okay so enjoy the story!!**_

_**Disclaimer: unlike other people I **_**do**_** own bleach, my whites have never been whiter!! …but I don't own Tite Kubo's Bleach… feel free to rub it in! **_**^_^ **_**the only thing/character I own is Karime!! (not to be associated in any way shape or form to Orihime please, their sound-alike names are merely an unfortunate coincidence) Oh and by the way, you might recognize some things/lines/plot, whatnot from other places/movies/or other fics… I really don't mean to steal any ideas its just that some things just stick you know? and sometimes people will write your ideas before you do… what can I say, great minds think alike. So everything that's not mine belongs to its rightful owner! (if I remember where I got it I'll put it up otherwise this is the disclaimer…)**_

_**Description of Karime**__**: Chad's adopted cousin, mid-back length, wavy, brown hair (kinda like Chad's); 5'2ft; athletic body (I'm thinking curvy-ish, like nice legs [she plays soccer], nice a** [anime girls don't seem to have a butt at all so I made Karime to have a nice, toned one], boobs bigger than Rukia's, smaller than Orihime [think somewhere in between], oval face, full lips, black eyes [you can't tell the pupil from the iris, pitch black eyes], light caramel skin. All in all, a pretty girl with an exotic-ish beauty. Nice girl, hard life, brilliant smile. **_

… '_**kay! Now seriously on with the story!! **_**^_^**

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_**Chapter 1:**_

_-*-FLASHBACK-*-_

"_no… No…. NO!… so much blood, so much yelling, what is this? Where am I? why is this happening again?" Karime found herself, for the millionth time, in a desert. It was pitch black, but she could feel sand under her feet, and a scorching sun bearing down on her. She heard war cries, familiar voices crying out for her help. She needed to see, she needed to help them. _

"_Why the hell can't I see anything?!" she cried out, a sense of impotence rushing over her "what's going on?" _

"…_Karime…" *that sing song voice, I know it, I hate it.* _

"_Do you hear them Karime? They're dying, you led them to their deaths, how does it feel to know that their blood is on your hands?" Karime struggled to respond, but she couldn't make a sounds, her body was stiff and wouldn't move. She tried to yell to scream but her voice caught in her throat painfully. The sing song voice started laughing. *no…no…*_

"Gah!" Karime woke up gasping for air, her skin felt clammy and she was covered in sweat. *Damn… it was that dream again* she sighed, *that stupid dream,* she snorted, *…stupid maybe but it's the story of my life…* A painful lump emerged in her throat at the thought.

She was on a train heading towards Karakura Town where she would get picked up by Chad. She was to live in Japan with Chad for a while, at least until she became old enough to get her own place and live on her own. She looked out the window as tears came to her eyes, and recalled why she was here in the first place.

_-*- FLASHBACK -*-_

_In the emergency room of a hospital somewhere in Mexico City._

"…_no… Karime…" called a weak voice. _

"_She's not here abuelo," replied Karime's _'aunt' _Sophia "Karime is packing her things; she's finally shown some shame and decided to leave us in peace." Karime bit her lip, even though _'aunt' _Sophia was talking to her abuelo, she was glaring at Karime. Karime knew that the words spoken were directed at her and not her abuelo._

"…_no… she can't… leave… not… alone… Karime…" said abuelo in a choked voice, talking in his state wasn't good, he was in a very bad state, the operating room was being prepared for him, he was badly hurt and was going to have emergency surgery._

"_She's not going alone, Chad has agreed to take her in Japan, but you mustn't think about her you're hurt." Just then four nurses came into the room, everything was ready for the operation, they were taking him away. Karime looked on helplessly, her heart clenched at seeing her abuelo in this state, and it was all her fault. Karime didn't even get the chance to say goodbye, he was whisked out of the room so quickly. Just then _'aunt' _Sophia rounded on Karime._

"_You__stay away from him! Look at what you've done! He's __**dying**__ because of you! And he's not the only one, how many people have you hurt?! Don't you have any shame?! You're cursed! __**Cursed! **__Get out! We don't want you anywhere near us! All of your things are already packed and waiting in the car, _'uncle' _Tomas will take you to the airport immediately, you leave on the first flight to Tokyo." Karime was taken aback._

"_what…now? But abuelo just went into surgery I can't leave until he comes out and I know he's alright!" she replied._

"_Are you stupid, deaf, or both? didn't you just hear anything I said? Or will you not be satisfied until he dies? You did this to him! The sooner you get away from him, from us, the better. Chad has agreed to take you, just be grateful you'll be with family rather than out on the street!" _'aunt' _Sophia' was right, the sooner she left the sooner they would all be out of danger._

"…_my things?" Karime asked in a near whisper._

"_I had all your things packed, down to the last sock, I don't want anything of yours anywhere near us! But if you hid something somewhere tell me now so I can get someone to go get it. I don't want any of your cursed things near!"_

"…_no, there's nothing." Karime replied meekly._

"_good , now leave, your flight leaves in an hour." _'aunt' _Sophia turned and left leaving Karime alone in the room._

Tears slide down Karime's face, that's when she realized with a start that they were the first tears she had shed since this whole thing started 18 hours ago. She was grateful that the part of the train she was in was alone and that it was near midnight, that way no one would see her crying. She wasn't one for crying in public. Karime didn't know what to do, she was to live with Chad indefinitely in this new country. *damn… at least I know the language* abuelo had been adamant that she learn Japanese since it was part of _their_ heritage, and he hadn't wanted _their_ roots forgotten even if he himself was Mexican and they lived in Mexico. *abuelo… _our_ roots* Karime shook her head *none of this is really mine.*

_-*- FLASHBACK -*-_

"_You ungrateful brat! Abuelo takes you off of the streets and this is how you repay him?! He should have left you on the streets with the rest of the street filth! You don't belong in an honorable and good family like ours!"_

*I was so little* Karime thought, *I was just happy that someone noticed me, and when he offered me a home, a family, I couldn't say no, I was just a child, all I wanted was to be loved* Karime's thoughts were interrupted, the train was stopping, they had finally arrived in Karakura Town.

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Karime descended from the train and the first thing she saw was the huge body of her cousin, yeah she had been adopted, but Chad had always treated her like a real cousin, out of all his family she's the only one he liked and trusted and vice versa, besides _their_ abuelo that is. Karime paused for the second it took for him to recognize her and then continued towards him, enveloping him in a surprisingly strong hug. Chad was the only one she knew she could rely on, the only one who didn't blame or judge her. Chad hugged her back wordlessly. He knew what she was feeling, he recalled when his abuelo had been attacked because of him, he recalled the guilt and understood her.

"Abuelo is out of surgery now…he's doing well..." he said when they had separated and gone in search of her luggage.

"thank you Chad," she replied, finally relieved now that her abuelo was out of surgery and apparently out of danger. Chad, however, knowing her very well, noticed that she still felt guilty, he didn't like what his family had said to her or how they treated her and in an effort to comfort her and bring a smile back to her face he said,

"…it wasn't your fault…you can stay with me however long you want…"

"thank you." Karime replied once again. There wasn't need for explanations right now, Chad already knew everything that had happened, and the fact that he still accepted her with open arms meant the world to her, she smiled at Chad, it was a very faint and sad smile but it was a smile nonetheless.

Once they had retrieved Karime's luggage they hopped in a cab and rode to Chad's apartment. Chad lived alone in a one level, two bedroom apartment, as soon as you walked in you were in the living room with the kitchen and dining room to the right, there was a hallway across from the door that lead to the bathroom and both bedrooms, although the apartment wasn't big, it was still roomy. His apartment was also surprisingly neat for a teenaged guy, it was decorated simply with a nice mix of Mexican and Japanese things, and it was very 'earthy,' Chad liked nature and unlike other modern styles Chad's apartment was very Zen like in it décor. Karime immediately felt at home. She would be living here now, going to school and working. *oh yea, that's right!*

"Chad, when does school start? I'm gonna have to register soon…and get a job to help you out with expenses…we can't both live of your band." she joked. Chad nodded and smiled.

"We're on break at school, we won't start 'till next week, and I heard that there's an opening as a coach for an elementary school soccer team…" Karime's eyes brightened at the job option, soccer was her passion, among other things, she had been captain of her high school team back in Mexico and her team had gained fame for winning a few important titles, being a coach would be fun.

"Is the school nearby? When do they start? Where can I apply?" she barraged Chad with a million questions.

"The school is a couple blocks away, I'll take you tomorrow." Chad then lead her to her room, it was simple with a bed, desk, closet, and a bureau with a large mirror, it was perfect for now, with time she would add her own spunk to it. Once they had lugged her bags inside Chad bid her goodnight and left to his own room. Karime left unpacking for the next day and without even bothering to change, fell onto the bed and into a dreamless sleep.

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*mmm…food…so hungry…need food…* thought a very tired Karime, she was barely waking up to the delicious smell of food and the warm rays of sunlight coming through her window. She slowly opened her eyes, immediately noting her surroundings, ever since Chad had told her that abuelo was going to be fine she had felt a huge weight lift off of her, it was like she could breath now and go on with her life even thought the guilt would never leave her. She knew that the last thing her abuelo would want is to have her stuck in guilt and sorrow. Karime decided right then that she would make the best out of her situation, otherwise her abuelo would worry needlessly and her 'family' would think they finally broke her. Karime would try to be happy here, with that thought she got up and walked into the kitchen where Chad was starting to eat his breakfast.

"Hey," she took in a deep breath, "it smells really good!" Chad simply nodded and proceeded to eat his breakfast. Karime served herself a plate and sat down across from Chad eating and observing her new surroundings. Once she'd had her fill of food she spoke up.

"You know, for a guy, your place is pretty nice…I'm kinda impressed." she smiled. Chad smiled back and nodded as he continued to shovel food into his mouth.

"Ok, so I'm gonna go clean up and settle in…its Sunday, so that means you have practice with the guys right?" she inquired, Karime knew all about Chad's band. Chad nodded once again.

"So when and where do you and the guys usually get together to play?"

"…5…here…" Chad spoke between mouthfuls, it actually astonished Karime how much he could eat, *but he _is_ a big guy…*

"okay great, do you think we can drop by the elementary school really quick though? I'm really interested in the coaching job!" again Chad nodded, Karime smiled and turned to walk back to her room.

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*ugh… why does unpacking have to be such a pain?* Karime thought. She had showered, put her hair up in a high ponytail and changed into tennis shoes, jeans and a green t-shirt, she had managed to unpack and get herself completely settled in, in a record time of 4 hours! Karime sighed deeply a fell back onto her bed. Karime was a pretty girl, she had long wavy brown hair, much like Chad's, that fell to about mid-back, her hair framed a pretty oval face that held a straight nose, full lips and black eyes, Karime's eyes were so black that you couldn't tell the pupil from the iris, it seemed as if you were looking into a dark abyss. Karime, was around 5'2 and being an athlete had a toned body, with gentle, smooth curves; her skin was a light caramel color giving her an exotic look. Karime layed on her bed staring at the ceiling *okay, enough resting I got a job to claim!* with a smile Karime jumped off the bed and went to get Chad. They had about an hour before his band practice.

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_-*- That night -*-_

Karime was excited, she had gotten the coaching job on the spot! Apparently that last coach had gotten injured and wouldn't be able to finish the season, and no one else wanted the job! She vaguely wondered why for a moment, but quickly resumed her train of though. She was to start tomorrow with regular practice. The school wasn't too far from Chad's place but she did notice that Chad's neighborhood was a bit sketchy… when she asked Chad he admitted that it was a 'bad-ish' neighborhood but that nobody messed with him because of his size and because he was a guy, he had also warned her to be careful. Karime wasn't worried though, abuelo had sent her to the best martial arts and boxing schools in Mexico City because he worried for her safety and wanted her to be able to defend herself in any situation. Karime had also gotten to meet two of Chad's band mates and had heard them play for a while. All in all it had been a good day.

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_-*- The next day -*-_

Karime had woken up late, she was still jet-lagged, and lounged around the house with Chad for the most part of the day, but now it was nearly 5 and she was getting ready to go to her first practice with her team. Karime packed her white cleats, a water bottle and a few power bars into a small sports bag, she was sporting gray sweats over soccer shorts and her team's green jersey, with tennis shoes, her hair in a high ponytail for practice.

Karime arrived at the soccer field 15 minutes early and was planning to warm up when she saw a young girl *probably on my team,* she thought, practicing alone. Karime called out the girl. "Hey!"

"huh?" the girl paused mid kick and turned around to face the voice.

"Are you on the team?" Karime called out while walking towards the girl.

"What's it to you?" the girl replied. Karime laughed, this girl was cute with short black hair and a pretty menacing scowl for such a little kid.

"I'm the new soccer coach, I just wanted to know if I was gonna have to kick you off the field or teach you how to kick properly." Karime joked.

"the new coach? What happened to our old one?"

"she got injured somehow and won't be able to finish the season."

"oh…" the girl frowned, then suddenly it hit her she was talking to the new coach. "My name is Kurosaki Karin, I'm left forward on the team." Karin stated. Karime smiled nodded.

"I'm your new coach Arouen Karime," both girls smiled at each other, but Karime could feel Karin sizing her up.

"Aren't you a little young to be coaching Arouen-san?" Karime's smile broadened.

"Karime is fine Karin-_chan_," Karime stated stressing the chan ever so slightly but enough to get under the little girl's skin, "and yea I am young, but still I'm way better than you guys, looking at your record so far…" Karime lifted her clipboard, "you guys could really use my help… I'll be sure to turn your losing streak into a winning one." Karime teased.

Karin's scowled deepened and she was about to retort when the rest of her elementary school team appeared. Karime turned around to face her new team, *huh, it's co-ed…* she thought idly. She then went to assemble her team and introduce herself.

"Hey, my name is Arouen Karime, I'm gonna be your new head coach, apparently your former coach got injured and won't be able to finish the season, so the school hired me to whip your butts into shape. Any questions?" Karime asked, pointedly ignoring, although highly amused by, the glare coming from the Kurosaki girl.

"How old are you Arouen-san?" asked a boy.

"18" replied Karime nonchalantly.

"Arouen-nee, do you have a boyfriend?" asked another.

Karime raised an eyebrow at the question, "um…no…?" she replied somewhat confused. Apparently her team was mesmerized by her; having such a young and good-looking coach and she even seemed really nice.

"Arouen-nee! Arouen-nee! Arouen-san!" they all started to yell out random questions.

"Ok, any questions about soccer and/or the team?" Karime asked, interrupting any further interrogation into her life.

"Are you even qualified to be coaching us?" asked Karin in a bored tone, the rest of her team simply gawked at her apparent rudeness. Karime chuckled lightly and responded.

"I was captain of my high school team for 3 years back home, I lead us to 3 National Championships, we won 2, I also led my team to several other important wins in regional, local, and 1 international cup. So yea, I think that makes me more than qualified." she smirked. The entire rest of the team was again openly gawking, but this time at Karime, in obvious admiration. Karin simply snorted.

"Ok then Karakura Elementary School Soccer Team…" Karime paused, "…wow…that name's really long…did your last coach really say all that all the time?" the children nodded. "…well then out with the old and in with the new…From now on I'll call us the K-EL soccer team!! Ok K-EL lets get divided into two teams and have a game so I can gauge each of your abilities and get this show on the road!" Karime shouted enthusiastically at her team, earning her a few odd looks from some people at the park and a rather annoyed look from Karin.

The practice went surprisingly smooth for elementary school kids, and Karime took notes on each student and their abilities diligently. When practice was over the sun was almost completely set and only 3 of her kids were left. Karime then saw Chad waiting patiently for her at the edge of the field, she waved at him but decided to wait for her kids' ride since they were all carpooling. Soon enough a man in a bright blue '67 mustang pulled up shouting for all his "beautiful children" to get into their "magical carriage" so they could be "transported" home. Karime wondered briefly if the man was high or drunk until she saw Karin facepalm and the other two kids laugh wildly, she shrugged and figured it was normal so she ran off to meet Chad.

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The rest of the week passed relatively quickly, Karime spent most of her time working with her team, meeting up with kids to have one-on-one practices, and trying to get them prepared for their upcoming game.

It was Sunday, tomorrow would be Karime's first day of class, she would be jumping right in to the middle of her senior year at Karakura High…Karime felt somewhat apprehensive; even though she had been a soccer star at her old high school, she had never really had friends…not that she was anti-social or anything, its just that the kids were vicious and rumors spread. *yea, _rumors_…* Karime snorted, she didn't blame anyone but herself for her condition. *whatever the hell that is* she thought sourly. Nonetheless, Karime continued getting ready for her first day of school. She had made up her mind to start anew here and make the best out of her situation. She had already bought her school uniform, notebooks, pencils and bag, tomorrow she would enroll. Karime finished getting ready and went to bed. But as she fell to sleep one last thought crossed her mind. *It's been so peaceful since I've gotten here… maybe I _can_ start from scratch… maybe I can be safe here…*

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_**A/N: hehehe!! Yay! The first chapter is DONE! Ichigo is gonna be in the next one although things won't get romantic till later on… so this was originally meant to be a short fanfic but as it turns out, stories write themselves and now I have no idea how long this'll be. Oh well. Okay so for those of you that didn't read this chap here's the summary:**_

_**First of all I made everyone about 3 yrs older than in the series, so now they're about 18/19 yrs old, on their Senior year at Karakura High, and this all takes place a couple months after the whole saving Rukia arc (no Bounts in this fic though and Ichigo has control of his hollow). (maybe I should of put this at the beginning… oh well…)**_

_**Karime was an orphan girl (maybe 4or 5 yrs old) living on the streets in Mexico City, she was found and taken in by Chad's grandfather (abuelo) and is his adopted cousin (She's the only one in the family (besides abuelo) who gets along with Chad and vice versa) [she grew up with them and is now 18yrs old]. However, there was an accident supposedly caused by Karime in which their abuelo was severely injured and Karime was kicked out of Mexico by her 'relatives' (who never liked her in the first place). Chad took her in though and now she's living in Karakura Town with him. Karime is a soccer fan and an exceptionally good player; she became Karakura Elementary School Soccer Team's (called K-EL for short) head coach in which Karin Kurosaki plays but so far the little Kurosaki isn't too fond of her. Karime also has some weird dream in the beginning in which she can't see anything but she knows she's in a desert and she hears screams for help as well and a creepy voice talking to her. The chapter ends the night before her first day of school and Karakura High.**_

_**Kay so that's it for this chap! Thank you for reading! Now please review, tell me what you think so far, suggestions are welcome, flames not so much but if you write them I'll read them… so PLEASE review!! ^_^**_

_**~Blackcat**_

_**P.S. I'll try to update asap but I'm making this up as I go and my life's pretty busy… so sorry in advanced for late updates!! Please bear with me!!**_

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	2. Meeting the Gang

_**A/N: …Okay I'm SO sorry for the late update but life likes to happen at random moments and teachers like to give majorly tough exams, term papers and term projects… **_

_**BUT I'm extremely happy to present to you Chapter 2!! Ichigo shows up in this chapter (as well as every other human… shinigamies will come later!)… that was a spoiler…sorry…**_

…_**ANYWAYS…moving on… **_

_**Okay a summary of the story so far, can be read at the bottom of Chapter 1. **_

_**Now, on to the fanfic!!!!!**_

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_**Previously:**_

_It was Sunday, tomorrow would Karime's first day of class, she would be jumping right in to the middle of her senior year at Karakura High…Karime felt somewhat apprehensive, even though she had been a soccer star at her old high school, she had never really had a lot of friends…not that she was anti-social or anything, its just that kids are naturally vicious and rumors spread. *yea, rumors…* Karime snorted, she didn't blame anyone but herself for her condition. *whatever the hell that is* she thought sourly. Nonetheless, Karime continued getting ready for her first day of school. She had already bought her school uniform, notebooks, pencils and bag, tomorrow she would enroll. Karime finished getting ready and went to bed. But as she fell to sleep one last thought crossed her mind. *It's been so peaceful since I've gotten here… maybe I can start from scratch… maybe I can be safe here…*_

_**Chapter 2:**_

_-*- The next day -*- (First day at Karakura High)_

"mmm…no…" Karime mumbled groggily while her alarm clock blared from her nightstand. "too early… damn… school…" Karime was _not _a morning person. The past week she had woken up late everyday and she'd gotten used to it, *damn early mornings.* Karime reached out and turned off her alarm, with her eyes still closed she got up from her bed, then with only one eye open, she grabbed her clothes and made her way to the bathroom to shower crashing into both her door and the bathroom door on the way. Karime was immediately awakened when the cool water hit her warm body, but she just stood there letting the water fall on her and quickly lost track of time, she was snapped out of her trance when Chad knocked on the door. Apparently he needed to shower as well. Karime got out and turned to look at the small clock above the toilet. *Crap! The first day of school and I'm gonna be late! That's all I needed…*

"I'm coming Chad!" she yelled out. Karime proceeded to dry her hair with her towel as much as possible as quick as possible, she decided that she wasn't going change in the bathroom after all so she grabbed her clothes and ran to her room clad only in a towel. *the sooner I get out of the bathroom, the sooner Chad can shower, the sooner we can leave for school!*

Karime had put on her undergarments, skirt and stockings when she grabbed her shirt and walked out into the kitchen to grab some toast and finish getting dressed while Chad was in the bathroom. Karime had a piece of toast hanging from her mouth and was in the process of putting on her shirt, *this shirt seems way bigger that it was yesterday…* she thought with a frown, when there was a sudden knock at the door. *…Crap! This is Chad's shirt!!* again the knock, this time more insistent. Karime finished buttoning Chad's shirt and jogged to the door.

However, just as she was opening the door she stumbled on one of Chad's shoes causing her to trip and almost fall onto the person who'd knocked, but she managed to catch herself with the doorknob. Karime looked up to see 3 guys who were all staring at her completely stupefied. One was short (around her height) with black hair, innocent looking, with his mouth open and he seemed to have dropped a phone, another was tall (about a foot taller that her) with a surprised scowl, mouth slightly agape and blindingly bright orange hair, and the other was medium height (a couple inches taller than her) with brown hair and stars in his eyes. It only took Karime a split second to recognize them from Chad's pictures as his friends, Mizuiro, Ichigo and Keigo, and it only took a split second for Keigo to recover, come to the conclusion that Chad had hooked up and start wailing like a banshee; at which point Karime realized what she was wearing and how it would look from their points of view upon her realization she then proceeded to slam the door shut in their faces.

Chad's shirt was so big on Karime that it covered her skirt making her look naked under it, it also didn't help that her hair was still tousled from the drying. *…well that's embarrassing…I look like I just got some…_from Chad!!_… eww!…* Karime thought, she then turned around and called out to Chad, who was still in the bathroom.

"Hey Chad! Your friends are at the door, and my shirt's in there with you! Just toss it into my room when you get out!" With that she took off Chad's shirt left it on the couch and walked into her room to brush her hair. Keigo was still wailing outside about how Chad had "hooked up with a cute girl" without telling him. Chad stepped out of the bathroom dressed but shirtless, he tossed Karime's shirt into her room and went to open the door with _his_ shirt in hand. As soon as he opened the door and Keigo saw him shirtless, his cries became even louder (if that was even possible).

"Yo." Said Chad to his friends nodding for them to come in. Ichigo having grown tired of Keigo's senseless screeching, punched said brunette in the face, then turned to face Chad.

"…_*cough*_…hey, uh, Chad, if, um, we came at a, um, bad time…" Ichigo, however, drifted off as Karime stepped out of her room fully dressed and ready to go. She was wearing the normal Karakura High uniform; grey pleated skirt hemmed at mid thigh showing off some great legs ***so the King's a leg man huh? Figures since you're constantly surrounded by boobs and you couldn't even give two fucks*** Ichigo shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of his hollow and returned to concentrate on her outfit. Karime had on the normal black, knee-high stockings, the tucked-in, crisp, white, ladies' dress shirt with the top two buttons opened ***damn you can't see her boobage*** the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and the red bow tie undone and hanging loosely around her neck. Her hair was down, her natural waves falling over her shoulders and long bangs framing her face. Ichigo noticed that she wore two wristlets, both on her right hand, one was a thick black leather band with what seemed like a sun engraved on a smooth piece of stained black wood and the other was an intricate pattern made by weaving what Ichigo assumed were tiny seeds. ***she's pretty fuckin' hot King…***

"Hey guys, sorry about slamming door but the brunette freaked me out." stated Karime while smiling politely and nodding towards Keigo. She then proceeded to introduce herself, "I'm Arouen Karime, Chad's--" she couldn't finish her sentence.

"Waaaahhhh!!! She's even a new transfer student at our school!!" shouted Keigo finally noticing her uniform, everyone flinched from his loudness. "Chad! How could you hide her from me!! This beautiful morning flower!!" he continued shouting, tears now flowing freely down his face.

Karime raised an eyebrow *…beautiful morning flower?…what's this guy on?…wait, he thinks _I'm_ with _Chad_?!*

"I'm Chad's cousin." Karime said rather loudly in an effort to be heard over Keigo. Keigo for his part, stopped dead in his tracks and turned to face her fully, his tears miraculously gone.

"I am Asano Keigo, it is truly a pleasure to meet you my fair lady! I am--"

"A huge pervert. So is Mizuiro." stated Ichigo calmly, ignoring the cries of protest coming from the two offended boys. Karime nodded in acknowledgement and kept her gaze on Ichigo expectantly even though she already knew their names, "I'm Kurosaki Ichigo." he stated again over the continued cries coming from Keigo and Mizuiro.

"You're Chad's bestie right?" asked Karime nonchalantly, a small smile playing at her features. She had heard more about Ichigo than anyone else of Chad's friends and she was glad to finally meet him. Ichigo, however, was clearly taken aback by the term _"bestie"_.

"bestie?" he ground out.

"yea, you know… best friend?… I guess it's a term usually reserved for girls…" said Karime while putting on her shoes. Ichigo couldn't help but notice her toned legs yet again. He gulped *what the hell Kurosaki? Are you _seriously_ checking out your best friend's _cousin_?… well I _am_ a healthy guy… I can admire good looks… right?* ***I'm sorry did you say something? I was busy checking out that hot piece of ass…*** he was quickly pulled out of his thoughts when he heard Chad grab the keys to lock the apartment. Chad nodded to all of them and they all shuffled out and began their trek to school. Karime was shielded protectively on both sides by Chad and Ichigo. While Mizuiro and Keigo continued with their pervy ways ahead.

They had arrived at the school relatively quickly, Keigo and Mizuiro having made small talk with Karime all the way. As soon as the group walked in the gates, whispers and rumors started making their way across the entire campus, all the students focused on the obviously new transfer student and her connection to Chad and/or Ichigo, Mizuiro and Keigo. Ichigo, Keigo and Mizuiro however were quickly (and much to Keigo's dismay) dropped from the rumors when the students saw Chad and Karime head into the school's main office together. While Karime and Chad were in the office enrolling and getting her schedule for the term, the wagging student tongues had already come up with the _most probable _story for her and Chad.

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"I heard that she's Chad's wife. Apparently they were married when they were babies but weren't forced to live together until now! She's from an island in the Caribbean and is the heir to the native tribe's throne!"

"So she's really a princess?"

"I can't believe Chad-kun is married!"

"But he hardly talks! How are they supposed to communicate?"

"Haven't you heard of _body language_?!?" one student thrust their hips suggestively while others rolled their eyes.

"Does she even speak Japanese? Being a native from a Caribbean island and all?"

"I also heard she does witchcraft! She has these weird things on her wrists and her eyes are so black you can't tell the iris from the pupil!"

"What do you mean weird things on her wrists? You mean like bracelets or wristlets?"

"I heard she's just plain hott! I wonder if she likes girls!?" chimed in Chizuru. Orihime ignored the last comment and left the group of gossiping girls as soon as she saw her best friend Arisawa Tatsuki make her way into the classroom.

"Oh my god! Tatsuki did you hear? Chad-kun is married!!" Orihime whispered fiercely to the tomboy. Tatsuki choked on air.

"W-what?!? That's not true Orihime, don't pay attention to those rumors. I saw Ichigo on the way here, he said her name is Arouen Karime and that she's Chad's _cousin_." explained Tatsuki to her over-endowed albeit air headed friend. Tatsuki turned to the door to see Ichigo saunter into the class and then looked expectantly at Orihime waiting for her to say her usual 'hello'.

"Ohayo Kurosaki-kun!!" Orihime half shrieked across the room.

***does she have to be so damn loud? It's so damn early!***Ichigo ignored his hollow even though his thought had been the exact same. He turned in the direction of the voice and replied, "Oyaho Inoue. Ohayo Ishida." he said turning his attention away from the loud girl and giving it to the Quincy instead.

"Ohayo Kurosaki." stated Uryuu nonchalantly and not looking up from his book. A vein in Ichigo's head began to throb, but Ichigo tried his best to remain calm, he had business to talk about.

"Have you noticed the sudden increase in hollow activity recently?" asked Ichigo bluntly.

"You'd have to be an idiot _not_ to notice it Kurosaki… oh wait you are." ***bastard…*** Ichigo grit his teeth but decided, for once, to be the bigger man and not let Ishida bait him.

"They've been really scattered and they even seem to be looking for something, or most likely someone… do you think this is all Aizen's doing?" Inquired Ichigo. Ishida finally looked up at Ichigo from his book.

"… I hadn't thought of it, but now that you mention it yes, they do seem to be searching for someone, but I don't think it has anything to do with Aizen, they all seemed to be looking on their own accord… there must be a specially tasty soul around… have you done any konso's?"

"hmm… yea but there hasn't been anything unusual about the souls… but if it's not Aizen then I don't really care… that soul is safe here, I'll kill every single hollow I come across and perform a konso on the soul once I find it." ***how chivalrous of you dear King*** Ishida simply nodded at Ichigo and turned back to his reading as Ichigo went to his seat. Chad walked in the room shortly after with Ochi-sensei.

Karime, much to most of the class's dismay, had not walked in with Chad, which meant that she was in a different class. And as Ochi-sensei started the class, all of the students' thoughts were on lunch when they would finally get to meet and/or gossip about the new transfer student.

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_-*-Lunch Time-*-_

*ugh.* Karime groaned. *That was so unbelievably stressful! I felt as if I was on display and geezus! This is supposed to be a _school_ for crying out loud! What are they teaching these kids? How to make good gossips?…well its not like there wasn't gossip back home…I just didn't hang out with those kids…or any kids really…maybe that's why being right in the middle of it is so weird…but come on Chad's _wife_?!? Seriously? And a _princess_?!?…Well they've got a hell of an imagination I'll give 'em that…* Karime thought back to earlier, after she and Chad left the main office. Chad had walked her to class, showed her where his class was as well as the bathroom and told her to wait out in the hall for him at lunch. Then both had gone on their separate ways to their respective classes.

_-*-FLASHBACK-*-_

"_Settle down now class!" class 4-D's sensei tried to hush the 40 or so students that were talking loudly about the new transfer student. Karime, overhearing them, groaned from outside the classroom. "Okay settle down… thank you. Alright so today we will be discussing population growth using logistic and exponential growth modules, but first I want to introduce to you our new transfer student!" Karime walked into the classroom with a polite yet nervous smile plastered forcibly on her face. *I've got to make the best out of this* she told herself._

"…_Ohayo, my name is Arouen Karime… I just transferred here from Mexico… this is my first time living in Japan… please help me get around school… I'll do my best to make friends with all of you." Karime finished lamely she bowed her head in an attempt to hide her face and her embarrassment while thinking *what the hell? Where did _that _come from? I sounded so stupid!* she then took a moment to look around the room at all of her new classmates' mesmerized faces. *huh, they must have liked my speech…* suddenly the students began bombarding Karime with questions. *… nd again with the million questions…* Karime thought._

"_Arouen-san! Is it true you're married to Sado-san?!"_

"…_um no."_

"_Are you really a princess Arouen-san?!"_

"_what!… no!"_

Thankfully the teacher had stopped the interrogation and had begun class, after that none of the students had really been able to harass her with questions. But here she was now putting her books into her bag while trying to make small talk with some girls and hoping Chad would be waiting for her right out side.

Chad was in fact waiting outside the classroom for her along with Ichigo and Tatsuki, the rest of their group had already gone to the roof to reserve their hang out. Karime was relieved to see them and to get rid of the superficial girls that she had been making small talk to, apparently those girls were too good and didn't hang with the same crowd as Chad and his friends. Karime noticed the tomboy smiling at her from Ichigo's side. *This is Arisawa!… Chad's secret crush!…* thought Karime, *maybe with my help they can get together!*

"Hello, I'm Arisawa Tatsuki one of Chad's friends, I'm also the black belt in the group!" said the tomboy in a friendly way.

"My name is Arouen Karime, it's nice to meet you Arisawa-san." Karime smiled back. All four began making their way to the roof where the others where waiting. Chad and Ichigo were quiet while the two girls struck up a conversation.

"So Arouen-san how is your first day at Karakura High going so far?" asked Tatsuki.

"Please Arisawa-san, call me Karime, and to be completely honest its been tiring especially since now I have all these rumors flying around about me." answered Karime truthfully knowing she could be herself around Chad and his friends. Tatsuki smiled, she liked Karime already.

"Alright but you have to call me Tatsuki too, and try not to worry too much about the rumors, they're just rumors anyways." Tatsuki smiled. They had now reached the roof and Karime gratefully realized that she already knew all of them with the exception of an unusually loud, long orange-haired, over-endowed girl and a nerdy, although cute, looking guy with glasses. Immediately after having caught sight of Karime, said girl came rushing up and took Karime into a tight hug, a hug which Karime found highly uncomfortable since she didn't even know the loud girl's name and she also because she didn't enjoy feeling the girl's chest pressed up so tightly against her own.

"HELLO KARIME-SAN!! I'M INOUE ORIHIME!! I'M SO HAPPY TO MEET YOU!!" shouted the girl right into Karime's ear. Karime cringed.

"umm… nice to meet you Inoue-san…" Karime replied trying to get out of the girl's hug and get her ears as far away from the girls mouth as possible. *maybe she thinks that since I'm Mexican I won't understand her Japanese, so she's trying to enunciate and speak louder to help me?…* thought Karime trying to find a reason for the loudness. Karime ended up being saved by the guy with glasses when he came up to introduce himself.

"Hello Arouen-san, my name is Ishida Uryuu, we have heard much about you from Chad, how do you like Karakura so far?" he asked politely with a bow and a warm smile. Karime sighed in relief since Inoue had let her go.

"Please call me Karime, and I have to say I like Karakura a lot, it's a nice change from the big city." replied Karime with an equally warm smile. The nearly non-existent ice had been broken and the rest of the group began talking and being their normally weird selves and Karime felt comfortable with them, she found that they were as easy to get along with as Chad. *This could work!* thought Karime with a smile as she joined in the group's conversation.

The rest of lunch went by rather uneventfully except for Keigo getting regularly beat up by Ichigo or Ishida when he made crude comments, and the day passed rather quickly as well.

The days were all the same, Karime would walk to school with Chad, Ichigo, Keigo and Mizuiro. Once there they would join the rest of the group to chat before class then they would all go to their respective classrooms and wouldn't see each other again until lunch when they would hang out on the roof. Then they would all go back to their classes and meet up again when school was over. Then everyone would walk to their houses. Karime would walk home with Chad get ready in her soccer gear and walk all the way back to Karakura High to practice with the girls soccer team even though she was told she could practice with them they had still told her she wouldn't be able to formally join the team. After her own practice Karime would walk to Karakura Elementary and coach her soccer kids.

Before Karime knew it she had survived her first week at Karakura High.

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_**Hehe!! Okay so that was chapter 2!! Let me know what you think! Comments and suggestions welcome, flames not so much but if you write them I'll read them!! And I'll even try to reply!**_

_**hmm… I feel like the story is going slow and this chapter seemed like a filler : / but I felt like I needed to give an overview of her new daily routine… By the way if you guys see any grammar or spelling mistakes let me know so that they can be fixed! (I don't have a BETA reader) I also realize that some sentences/paragraphs are choppy so I apologize but like I said suggestions are welcome (if you think the sentence/paragraph would sound/flow better a certain way let me know!)**_

_**Also not all A/N will be as long as the ones for these 2 first chapters… at least I'll **_**try **_**to make them shorter. **__**J**_

_**Please Review!!! **_

_**~Blackcat!! **_**^_^**


	3. same old, same old? not today

_**A/N: Ok so as a heads up I'm letting you know that we're gonna fast forward a bit in this chapter… **_

_**This chapter begins at the end of Karime's first week at Karakura High (her second week in Karakura City)… and btw I know there hasn't been any fluff or shinigamies yet… I know it sucks but please bear with me! They **_**will**_** come!! lol... **_

_**Okay!! So on with Chapter 3!!!**_

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_**Previously:**_

_The days passed rather quickly and before Karime knew it she had survived her first week at Karakura High._

_**Chapter 3:**_

Karime was lying on her bed looking up at the ceiling. It was Sunday night… she had been in Karakura for two weeks now and she was thinking over what had happened since she had arrived. She thought back to the soccer team she was coaching, the season was almost over and they only had a couple games left to play. *that was fast… those kids have really grown on me* she thought with a smile, *and I think I might have grown on them too.* She thought back to the Kurosaki girl, Karin. *I think she likes me now!* Karin had gone from disliking Karime to tolerating her to showing some respect and surprisingly, in a matter of a couple short weeks, she was beginning to show signs of actually liking her. Karime chuckled, she had grown really fond of the Kurosaki girl in particular.

School had been…well, school. Karime had made friends, although none as close as the ones she met through Chad and she was no longer seen as the new transfer student, now she was just another classmate. The only problem was that Karime was on the receiving end of a lot of attention from the boys, however they usually kept their distance because of Chad's body build, Ichigo's scowl and Ishida's glares. Some boys ,though, were persistent, and one in particular was starting to cross the line. His name was Oba Kaitou and he was widely known as the school bully/jackass. He lived a few blocks from Chad's place and ever since Karime had "met" him, he had started to take the same route to school that she took with Chad and their friends. At school Kaitou had begun to take every opportunity he could to 'talk' to Karime.

_-*-Flashback-*-_

_Karime was walking back to the girls locker room from the gym, school had ended 10 minutes ago but she had to stay behind to take a conditioning test for her P.E. class. None of the students had P.E. as their last class so Karime had ended up walking back to the main building alone, she didn't mind being alone until she turned the corner and saw there leaning casually against the wall a tall, dark haired, buff guy looking expectantly at her. This was the guy that had been stalking her, Oba Kaitou._

"_Hey there sweetheart, you're Chad's cousin, Karime right?" He grinned at her, showing her his cigarette-stained teeth._

"_It's Arouen to you." Karime bit back. His grin widened as he shamelessly looked her up and down. Karime shivered involuntarily from shear disgust._

"_You know Karime, I've been thinking…"_

"_didn't know you were capable of doing that… and it's Arouen" Karime interrupted bitterly. He chuckled._

"…_I think you hang out too much with Chad and his gang… I don't think you belong with them…"_

"_I don't recall asking for your opinion, and I honestly don't care what you think." Karime clenched her hands into fists and placed them on her hips defiantly._

"_I think you need to stop spending so much time with them and start spending more time with me… I'll even make you the honor of being my girl." He popped his collar casually, obviously trying to make an impression. Karime scoffed and glared._

"_You should stop thinking so hard before you hurt yourself, and 'being your girl' is an 'honor' I don't want." She began to walk past him, thinking that the situation would be over and that he would leave her alone after her cold rejection._

_~*~End Flashback~*~_

But damn! The guy couldn't take a 'no'! He had kept coming up to her, though less often since Karime tried not to be anywhere alone. It wasn't that she was scared of the guy, she just didn't want to have to deal with him. The guy was a wannabe punk, who was, at the moment, suspended for having stolen some tests from the teacher's lounge and he was constantly getting into fights, dealing with him would probably mean having to make a scene in which she was sure Chad, and obviously Ichigo, since they had that pact thing, would have to get involved. The last thing she wanted was for Chad and/or Ichigo to get in trouble, so she tried her best to keep away from the guy and his friends and to be not be alone at school. Consequently she had made lots of friends.

Back in Mexico she hadn't had time to make or keep many friends, it was always: from home to school to work and then back home again, soccer had barely fit in. Chad's stingy relatives had stopped giving any money to abuelo after Karime was old enough to work and the money that abuelo earned from his, nearly non-existent, carpentry business and the pension he got from the government has hardly enough for himself. Karime had to work to help buy food and pay the bills as well as for her clothes, school books, the medicines for abuelo and for anything else they needed. Living like that had been tough but she had made sure that no one found out, not even Chad. Karime refused to ask for help from anyone, she was aware that the relatives knew that she had to work her ass off to make a living for both her and abuelo but as long as Karime asked nothing of them that was fine with both parties. That is until they found out abuelo had a will, that was when they started visiting and bringing him gifts and sucking up to him, and telling him how Karime was sucking the life from him, how it was her fault he started to get sick more often, how she was cursed because wherever she went bad spirits followed…

"Grrraahh!" Karime rolled over and half-growled, half-yelled into her pillow. Just thinking about them was pissing her off. Karime sighed heavily and decided that thinking about them was useless so she tried to fall asleep instead.

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_-*- Fast Forward a Few Weeks-*-_

As it had been since she had arrived in Karakura Town, Ichigo, Mizuiro and Keigo would stop at Chad's apartment to 'pick them up' on their way to school. Keigo and Mizuiro would normally perv out while making small talk with Karime while Ichigo would speak up once in a while, usually to warn, insult or make fun of the two other boys, and Chad would simply walk silently enjoying the time he was able to spend with his friends.

As it had been for the past few weeks, all five of them would walk on campus together and meet with Orihime, Tatsuki and Uryuu. They would all chat for a while then they would separate, each going to their own lockers, then proceeding to go into their respective classrooms, which was the same room for all of Chad's gang and a different one for Karime.

And as usual, Karime would walk into class while responding politely to "Ohayo"s and making small talk with classmates. Karime would go to her seat and wait patiently for class to start. This morning however, before class was called to attention, Karime was called to her sensei's desk.

"Ohayo Arouen." said the sensei quietly.

"Ohayo Sensei. Did you want to speak to me?" asked Karime.

"Yes Arouen, you know that this class has too many students in it, right?" asked the sensei getting straight to the point, Karime nodded. "Well I have been informed that a student from class 2-D has transferred to another school and so they have a seat open. Would you like to transfer to that class? I thought the change would be easier for you since you are the newest student and most of these students here," the sensei motioned to the students in the loud room, "are already accustomed to being here and would therefore be unwilling to be transferred, and also because your cousin, Yasutora-kun, is in that class. What do you say Arouen?"

"I accept Sensei." Karime nodded, she felt happy that she would get to be in class with Chad and his friends.

"Good, then please take your things, I will take you to your new class now." continued the sensei while standing up.

"Hai sensei." Karime quickly went back to her seat and picked up her bag. *…Chad's in class 2-D? huh… this is gonna be fun.* Karime grinned and followed the sensei out of the classroom and down the hall a couple doors. The door to class 2-D opened and her new sensei waited patiently beside it.

"Ohayo Arouen, I am glad that you decided to transfer into my class, I've heard good things about you from your sensei. I am Ochi-Sensei your new teacher." the woman smiled kindly down at Karime.

"Thank you Ochi-Sensei for accepting me in your class, it's a pleasure to meet you." Karime bowed politely. Ochi-Sensei smiled widely at her.

"Alright well I should get class started. I hope you don't mind but I'm going to skip the whole 'new transfer student introduction' thing since all of the kids in there already know who you are." Karime nodded, grateful and Ochi-Sensei continued, "There's an open seat two rows from the front and two from the right near the door, that will be your seat, go ahead and get settled in." Karime nodded once again and walked into the noisy room, well at least it _was_ noisy until Karime stepped in, then the entire room went quite and a spilt second later it erupted into a roar of voices; happy tears and shouting from Keigo, happy exclamations from Tatsuki and Orihime a nod from Mizuiro, a smile from Uryuu and Chad, a confused look from Ichigo ***I think school just got way more interesting King*** and the loud voices of the other students asking questions, welcoming Karime to the class and so on, that is until Ochi-Sensei intervened.

"ALRIGHT YOU BRATS! SHUT UP SO WE CAN GET STARTED!" surprisingly enough to Karime, the room immediately quieted down. Apparently the students in this class knew full well that Ochi-Sensei was prone to start throwing things at those who kept talking, and they also knew that Ochi-Sensei _never_ missed her mark. "Okay so Arouen-chan has been transferred to this class from class 4-D, I'm sure you all know who she is but if you don't, introductions will have to wait until break or lunch, got it?! Good! NOW LET'S GET STARTED WITH MATH!!" At Ochi-Sensei math announcement the entire class groaned and Karime took the time to look around the class at her friends before she turned back to Ochi-Sensei and started taking notes on the lecture. Karime completely missed the attentive glance that was directed at her from one Kurosaki Ichigo.

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Ichigo was a surprisingly good student, he was near the top of his class along with Chad, Tatsuki, Inoue, Ishida and even Mizuiro. Ichigo's grades, as well as Chad's, Inoue's and Ishida's grades, had suffered though, after he became a substitute shinigami. With the whole leaving to Soul Society to save Rukia and his problems controlling his hollow, Ichigo had neglected school, something that his father had, literally, beat him up over. It had been a four months since he had left Rukia in Soul Society though and about two months of him having gained control over his hollow. The hollow activity around Karakura City had, until about a few weeks ago, been nearly non-existent so Ichigo had time to not only catch up but jump ahead in his school work. Now Ichigo was at least a couple days ahead of the class in the material that they were supposed to be learning, so he allowed his mind to wander during Ochi-sensei's lectures.

Ichigo looked out the big windows near his seat and thought about the upcoming war with Aizen, about Rukia and Renji, Urahara, Yoruichi and even Kenpachi, at whose name Ichigo gave an involuntary shudder ***since when did you become such a pansy King? I would kill to have a go at that guy!***. Ichigo shook his head and resumed with his thoughts, focusing on the increase in hollow activity. When Ichigo became a substitute shinigami, Rukia had taught him that there was usually a steady flow of hollows into the real world, there was a certain number that was considered normal, anything higher or lower than that number was investigated, and Rukia had been right, it seemed like everyday there were only about 10 hollows. However, when Ichigo had come back from Soul Society, the number of hollows in Karakura had dropped *Tche, I was lucky if I found even _one _on any given day. * **Ha! there you go King! There's the blood lust!*** Ichigo had even gone and spoken to Urahara who had assured him that everything was fine and so he had relaxed and taken advantage of the break, but now… The number of hollows had risen steadily at first, but now their numbers had begun to go over what had been considered normal before. The strangest thing, though, was that the hollows nowadays hadn't been interested in just any soul, in fact Ichigo had seen them completely ignore several vulnerable souls in their search for a specific one. Ichigo furrowed his brow in concentration. *They're looking for someone, but who?*

Ichigo turned away from the window and let his gaze wander around the class, only to have it stop on a black wristlet with an engraved sun. *_Karime_*. He could see her back and only about a quarter of her face. Her hair was down and wild as usual, and Ichigo could see her writing down notes. He hadn't noticed before but there was something about her that just seemed to call to him, even though they rarely talked to each other, when they talked, they talked to the group not directly to each other and but even so Ichigo could tell there was something about her. It was strange, she seemed so open to everyone and yet so mysterious.

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After Karime transferred into class 2-D, the days seemed to go much slower for Ichigo. He had begun to spend most of his class time observing Karime, trying to figure her out. Yet despite his efforts, he was still unable to pin down what exactly was different about her. It had only been a few days since she had joined his class but in that time Ichigo had gotten to know Karime much better. Ichigo had begun to be able to her body language like a book even without having to see her face. Ichigo had also begun to notice that there was something in her eyes, even though they rarely made eye contact. Ichigo frowned deeper, he had noticed it from the first day he met her, it was as if her smile, though bright, never quite made it to her eyes, her eyes seemed shadowed and uncertain. Ichigo realized that he could see a difference between the usual brightness in her eyes and brightness he believed they should have. Ichigo scowled harder when he realized just how intently he had been looking at her.

*_What the hell am I doing analyzing her like that!? Why the hell should I noticed stuff like that and why do I fuckin' care so goddamn much!?_

***Turning into a bit of a stalker, are we King?**

*_Ugh, shut up! I'm not stalking anyone!_

***Haha! I'm just jerkin' your leg King, but really who would've thought you could be so perceptive? I'm mean "boobs" over there has been practically bouncing those things in your face and you haven't even noticed.**

*_Maybe because I'm not some pervert that only thinks about boobs!! …and anyways I don't even know who you're talking about!_

***Oh that's right, you're a pervert that only thinks about legs!! And how could you not know who I'm talking about? Are you really that dense?**

*_I don't think about legs _all _the time!! And I'm not that dense!! _

***But you admit to being a leg pervert and thinking about legs most of the time huh? Hahaha! **

*_Damn it! Stop laughing at me in my own damn head!! _*

Ichigo growled and forcefully pushed his hollow back into the recesses of his mind and tried to focus his attention on Ochi-Sensei yet his mind kept wandering back to Karime. He had gotten to know Karime better through their group hangouts and she seemed like a nice outgoing girl who had no trouble making friends, she tended to laugh a lot, but her laughs too always seemed somewhat restrained. It was as if there was something constantly holding her back from really exposing her real self, like there was a deep unconscious sadness bearing down on her. Ichigo's brow furrowed as he thought about her when suddenly his attention was drawn away, towards the door to the classroom where one of the main office's secretaries stood motioning to their sensei.

*_Hmm… that's odd, the secretaries never interrupt class unless its some type of emergency…_*

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Karime looked up from her note talking to see who had entered their class. She recognized the woman at the door as one of the ladies who had helped her on the first day here. The woman stepped back out of the room as Ochi-Sensei began walking towards her but Karime noticed the brief and sad glance directed past her at one of the students. Karime raised and eyebrow in confusion.

"OKAY CLASS, WHILE I TALK TO , I WANT YOU ALL TO DO EXAMPLE PROBLEM 8, WHEN I COME BACK I'LL HAVE ONE OF YOU DO IT ON THE BOARD FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS! AND KEEP QUITE!!"

As soon as the sensei had walked out of the room and closed the door Karime turned around in her seat to talk to Tatsuki and to sneak a glance back in the direction the woman had glanced. The first thing Karime saw was Chad with his head bent down, she noticed there was also a tenseness in his shoulders.

"What do you think that was about?" asked Tatsuki, effectively stirring Karime out of her thoughts.

"..?…I don't know…" she replied quietly.

"She's coming back." Tatsuki whispered, and Karime turned back around in her seat. She looked up at Ochi-Sensei only to see her motion to one of the students to step outside. Karime was about to turn around to see who it was when she heard Tatsuki gasp quietly behind her. Karime stiffened in her desk as she saw his huge body walk in front of the whole class and towards Ochi-Sensei at the door.

"Don't worry Rime-chan, I'm sure everything will be fine." Tatsuki poked at Karime's back having noticed her tensed posture. Karime felt her heart clench, something was wrong. Tatsuki remained silent behind her not quite knowing what to say.

Ichigo balled his hands into fists, *_what the hell is going on out there!?_*

The entire class remained relatively silent, the only sounds heard were the low whispers of curious and confused students.

A few painful minutes later, a solemn Chad entered the classroom followed by a quieter Ochi-Sensei. Karime's eyes followed Chad across the entire room but she didn't turn her body to see him went he went to his desk. Once at his desk Chad began to gather his things quickly, his mouth was set into a hard yet sad line, he looked briefly towards Ichigo, who was watching him intently. Ichigo understood the look in Chad's eyes perfectly, even though Ichigo didn't know what was going on, it was a look they had shared only a handful of times before. It was the silent reiteration of their pact from long ago _"You protect what's important to me, I'll protect what's important to you.". _Ichigo nodded and Chad began to walk back out of the classroom.

Karime saw him walk by the front of the classroom again, she was expecting him to look at her to assure her that he was okay but all she saw was his hair obscuring half his face from her view. That's when Karime knew, things were really bad.

After Chad left the room and the sensei had restarted class, Ichigo looked at Karime, she hadn't moved since Chad had left and it didn't look like she was currently breathing either. Ichigo started to get more worried as the long seconds ticked by and Karime still remained motionless.

The class was quiet as Ochi-Sensei began to write on the blackboard. Ichigo's eyes still trained on Karime, he was about to get up or yell at her when all of sudden he heard the sharp snap of a pencil breaking in two. He saw Karime's hands shake for a millisecond, the broken pieces of her pencil clenched tightly in her fists before she stood up hastily knocking her chair backwards on the floor with a loud clatter and dropping her broken pencil. She stood there behind her desk for a second before sprinting off to the door and out into the hallway letting the door slam behind her as she went to look for Chad.

Ichigo was startled by Karime's outburst but immediately knew she was the reason for the look Chad had given him moments ago. Ichigo recovered quickly from his surprise and turned to Ochi-Sensei who nodded at him knowingly, giving him silent permission to go after Karime.

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**A/N: Haha!! So I've finally gotten this story on a roll!! :D Now the plot can really begin to unfold!! Yayness!**

**Okay so like always I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Let me know what you think (likes, dislikes, comments, suggestions, critiques, flames, whatever they all help me out!) or if something is confusing or you have any questions! :) **

**Right so please don't forget to review! ^_^**

**~Blackcat**


	4. Falling Apart

**A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews/alerts and favs!! ^_^ This might sound ridiculous (and it probably is) but they really do mean the world to me!**

**So as you guys can see the story is finally starting to unravel! Okay so I won't keep you waiting any longer, I present to you, ladies and gentleman, Chapter 4!! Enjoy!!**

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_**Previously:**_

_Ichigo was startled by Karime's outburst but immediately knew she was the reason for the look Chad had given him moments ago. Ichigo recovered quickly from his surprise and turned to Ochi-Sensei who nodded at him knowingly, giving him silent permission to go after Karime._

_**Chapter 4:**_

Karime paused for a second right out side of the classroom, *_damn_* thought Karime, she knew she had just made a huge scene in front of the entire class but she didn't care, something was very wrong. As she began to run again Karime felt a cold, black wave of panic begin to creep over her. *_…Chad… damn it… where are you?_* Karime's footfalls were uncharacteristically loud and heavy as she made her way quickly through the hall and towards to school lockers, her mind was clouded and jumbled as she tried to make sense out of what was happening.

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Ichigo quickly walked out of the classroom, his brow was furrowed in confusion and worry. He tried to think of where Karime or Chad would have gone, but it proved to be unnecessary since he could hear loud footfalls, which he assumed to be Karime's, echo through the hall. Ichigo began to jog in the direction of the sound. ***Better hurry King, she didn't look so good***

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Karime was starting to breath heavily, the anxiousness and worry constricting her chest, not allowing her lungs to take in as much oxygen as her body needed. She hated this, the only other time that Chad had avoided her eyes was when his parents had been killed. He hadn't made eye contact with her for days and then he had unexpectedly gone on a violent rampage, beating up whatever kid he could find. Chad wasn't really one to be ruled by his emotions *_other than compassion and love, he is such a hippie in that way_*, he remained calm in almost all situations but when he actually struggled to hide his emotions, especially from Karime, it was because he actually felt that his world was falling apart or maybe it actually was. Karime ran faster, turning the corner towards the locker bay were she found Chad's locker already opened and empty. *_…What the hell? _* Karime turned quickly on her heel and began running again towards the school's main office at the entrance, they would have to tell her what happened to Chad and where he was.

Karime ran down the stairs leaping over the last couple of steps to the ground, her right foot rolled slightly to the side on her stumbled landing causing a jolt of sharp pain to shoot up from the ankle and through her leg but she ignored the pain and kept running. As Karime ran around the last corner she collided painfully with a hard body, her momentum causing the body to emit a soft grunt while sending it stumbling a few steps back with her attached. Karime recognized the 'voice' immediately and looked up.

"Chad! What happened? What's wrong? Are you okay?" Karime grabbed his arms and backed up in order to get a better look at Chad's face even though his shaggy dark brown hair obscured most of it. Chad looked down at her, his eyes regretful but he remained silent. Karime's eyes widened, openly showing her confusion and fear. She drew in a shaky breath and tried again, this time her voice quieter, more hesitant.

"Chad, what happened?"

"…Karime… Abuelo… he's in a coma… they don't expect him to come out of it…" Karime looked up at Chad unbelievingly.

"What?" she asked in a near whisper, "…b-but he was fine, what happened!?" her voice becoming increasingly louder and urgent with each word. Chad's face looked guilty and his eyes looked at her pleading with a mix of pain, guilt and regret in his dark brown eyes. He watched as Karime's obsidian eyes displayed her emotions completely; confusion, fear, and finally as her eyes widened, understanding.

Karime felt as if she had been punched in the stomach, she felt as if she was falling into some sort of dark abyss. Karime suddenly knew, Chad had lied about their abuelo being okay; when she first arrived in Karakura, Chad had lied to her saying that their abuelo was fine, but he was never fine and now he was even worse, in a coma. Karime felt if hard to breath.

"I'm sorry Karime…" Chad carefully pulled Karime into a hug, an attempt to comfort her and himself. He was surprised that she accepted the hug and even lifted her arms to hug him back. Chad took a deep breath and continued, "I'm leaving to Mexico City on the next flight from Tokyo, but I have to leave now in order to catch it. I left the house key in the main office for you. Ichi-"

"I'm going with you." Karime interrupted, "I have to see abuelo." Karime kept her head down and spoke into Chad's chest, her voice was soft and pained but he could hear her clearly. Chad felt his heart clench at her words, he felt a slight wave of anger, though not at her, rush over him but he pushed it back.

"You can't come with me," he stated quietly, "They told me they don't want you there, if you go they'll accuse you and have you thrown in jail."

"Accuse me of what!? I haven't done anything to your stupid relatives!" Karime felt the anger bubble up inside of her. "I don't care anyways, they can do whatever the hell they want to me after I see abuelo! I need to see him Chad! I need to tell him I'm sorry, I need to tell him I didn't mean to hurt him, I need to ask him to forgive me…" Karime pushed away from Chad and looked up at him, her vision blurry because of the tears stinging at her eyes. "Chad, I need to go… please." Chad swallowed.

"No." Chad stated again, this time with more resolve. "I promised abuelo that I would take care of you, that I would protect you and keep you safe. I can't break that promise to abuelo Karime, you know that." Karime knew that Chad would never, could never break a promise to their abuelo, specially not at a moment like this.

"Dammit!" Karime hit Chad's chest with her fists, though there was really no force behind her hits. "Why do they hate me so fucking much! What did I ever do to them!? I was always at their damn feet!" Chad was speechless, he didn't know why his family was so vicious towards Karime, they had never really cared about her either way when they were young, why did they hate her so much now?.

"…Karime?" he asked tentatively. Karime looked up and after a shaky breath nodded in acquiescence. Karime kept her eyes from shedding tears as she forced herself to speak in the calmest voice she could manage.

"…Tell him I'm sorry that I hurt him, that I love him and that I'm thankful for everything, that he saved me, tell him I was very happy and that somehow, I'll make him proud." Karime shut her eyes tightly to prevent any tears from escaping her eyes and she bent her head in shame. Chad wrapped his arms around her again but remained silent. Karime squeezed his frame lightly before gently pushing him away. "Go, Chad, hurry… I'll be okay, I promise." Karime managed a nearly invisible smile up at Chad, he nodded offered a smile back before he bent forward and placed a brotherly kiss on her head before walking quickly away and out the front doors.

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Ichigo had stopped jogging through the halls as the sounds of running had stopped, but he had continued walking at a fast pace down the stairs and towards the front of the school, he decided that if he didn't find either Chad or Karime soon, that he would have them announced over the school intercom.

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Karime stood motionless and alone in the hall. She had heard Chad leave through the front doors and she wanted to leave too but her legs were not yet ready to move so she stood there, her mind reprocessing everything that had just happened. Karime felt tears sting at the back of her eyes, school would be out soon and she didn't want anyone to see her, she had made enough of a scene for one day. On wobbly legs she turned around and began to make her way towards the front of the school, Chad would be long gone now so there would be no one to see her crumble, as she was sure she would once she stepped out of the school. She covered her face with her hands, "…I _am_ cursed…" she whispered to herself. Karime began to walk faster as the double doors leading outside came closer, yet they were still far off. Karime was about to break into a sprint when another body came seemingly out of nowhere and blocked her path. Startled, Karime looked up at the face and as soon as she recognized the other person her eyes narrowed into a fierce glare. Oba Kaitou was the very last person she wanted see.

"Hey baby, you found me!" Karime growled as a vulgar smile made its way onto his face. Kaitou chuckled, "I know you want me, but there's no need to cry sweetheart, I'm here now." Karime was **not** in the mood for this.

"Get the hell away from me Kaitou." Karime's voice was dangerously quiet and clearly laced with venom. Kaitou raised his hands up in an obviously mocking effort to calm her.

"Hold on, now I _know_ you don't _really_ feel that way… _especially_ not after I heard everything you said to Chad…" Kaitou looked down at her a smug leer on his stupid face as Karime's eyes widened. "You hurt someone huh?" he continued, "and by the looks of it you've nearly killed 'em too." Kaitou sighed exaggeratedly then chuckled, "It's alright baby, I'm not scared of you, I _like_ my girls badass… but you know it does make things a little complicated… specially if someone finds out…" He licked his lips suggestively. "You know, if you decided to go out with me, then no one would ever have to know that you've hurt some people. That's why you transferred here right? You've hurt people."

Karime felt her blood boil, she couldn't believe that Oba Kaitou was trying to blackmail her into going out with him, but mostly she was angry that he would use her pain for his benefit.

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Around the corner Ichigo was holding his breath, he had been about to walk around and into the hall when he'd heard Kaitou's stupid voice, Ichigo had peeked around the corner to see who Kaitou had called 'baby' when he saw Karime standing with him. Confused, Ichigo had remained hidden when he heard them speak to each other with such familiarity.

Ichigo hated Kaitou, he had constantly tried to pick fights with him and Chad, he had hit on Rukia when she had been at school and the guy was a poser. The thought of Karime being so familiar with him made Ichigo extremely angry, he even felt kind of betrayed. Yet Ichigo didn't move, he continued to stand there quietly, paying close attention to everything Kaitou said.

Ichigo's hands balled up into fists and his knuckles turned white as heard Kaitou's blackmail offer to keep silent. ***Let me kill the bastard King!*** Ichigo could feel his hollow, who was always ready to fight anyone for any reason, push at the edges of his mind. He fought to maintain his hollow in the enclosure of his inner world as he looked around the corner.

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Karime remained silent as she glared up at Kaitou, a triumphant and self-satisfied smile plastered on his face. His expression only served to fan the flames of Karime's almost tangible wrath and merely a second before she acted a minuscule lick of fire flamed in her obsidian eyes, a minuscule flame that went unnoticed by Karime but a flame that both Ichigo and Kaitou saw clearly.

Then as suddenly as the flame had appeared and disappeared, Karime balled her right hand into a tight fist and with incredible speed and strength, she punched the flabbergasted Kaitou in the gut, knocking his air out and causing him to double over to where his face was level with hers. Karime then quickly spun around and brought her left elbow up to connect with his nose, earning her the satisfyingly sickening crunch of Kaitou's now broken nose. Kaitou fell hard on his knees with a yell, his hands flying up to his bleeding, broken face. Karime grabbed his shirt with both hands and lowered her face to his, her eyes glaring daggers at him and her voice menacing.

"A couple of broken bones will be the _least_ of your problems if you _ever _try to pull that shit on me again!" Karime pushed him away from her and ran out of the school, unable to keep her tears at bay for any longer as Kaitou's words stung in her mind. *_I have hurt people_* Karime could no longer keep the pain inside as she ran toward the school gates.

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Ichigo's eyes widened considerably at Karime's actions and he cringed when he heard Kaitou's nose break. He was thoroughly surprised, Chad had told him that Karime had both boxing and martial arts training but he never thought that she'd be that good, or that fast. ***…that was so hott!… Did you see her eyes!?*** Ichigo's surprise though was quickly replaced by anger when he saw Karime wipe away tears as she ran out through the school's double doors.

Ichigo looked back at Kaitou who was still on the ground and walked over to him quickly. Ichigo grabbed Kaitou by the collar of his shirt and roughly pulled him off the ground until their faces were level, ***Please King! Let me kick his ass!***, Ichigo snarled and slammed Kaitou up against the wall, his hold on the guy tightening. Ichigo found his hollow's offer highly tempting.

"If you ever so much as _look _at her again, I won't hesitate to kill your sorry ass Oba." Ichigo ground out warningly before dropping Kaitou to the ground and turning to run after Karime.

Ichigo pushed through the double doors in time to see Karime sprint through the school gates and turn in the direction of Karakura Park. He hadn't noticed before but it was raining heavily outside, hell the only reason he noticed now, even though he was already running in the rain, was because his uniform jacket was now soaked through. Ichigo could hear the thunder rumble menacingly from somewhere among the clouds and he began to run faster after Karime.s

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Karime ran as fast as she could, she felt the rain soak through her clothes but she didn't care. She needed to get away, from what, she didn't know, but she did know she needed to run, to run as fast as she could, maybe that way she could outrun her past, maybe that way she could outrun the pain. Karime felt her lungs constrict painfully with every breath she took, her silent sobs wracking her running body, her legs burned with the exertion and the lack of oxygen, but Karime pushed herself faster, she needed to get to somewhere where she could be alone, somewhere where she could give voice to the hurt that had been locked up inside her body. Karime pushed her body towards Karakura Park which she knew would be empty, there was a small patch of forest there in which she could let herself crumble.

Karime ran through the streets toward the park, the fat, cold drops of rain beating hard against the exposed skin on her face and legs, her hair whipped about her furiously as the wind blew. Karime paid no attention to her surroundings until she came upon Karakura Park she simply kept running past the playground and the pick-nick tables until she ran into the thin, small patch of forest and to a tiny clearing hidden among the trees. Karime stopped abruptly in the clearing, half skidding to a stop on the slick mud beneath her feet, the rain hadn't lessened but among the trees the fat droplets of water became less dense. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Karime was grateful for the rain, it was cold against her skin and it washed away her tears, yet at the forefront of her mind there was a windstorm of thoughts and memories swirling around violently. Karime heard the accusing voices of Chad's relatives, their disgusted looks, the terrified looks of those she had hurt, the piercing yells and distorted voices of her nightmares. All of the things that Karime had struggled to keep hidden inside the hollow depths of her soul jumped out at her with a fierce viciousness and it was all too much for Karime to handle at once. In a desperate attempt to relieve herself of the mental pain, Karime brought her small, tight fist up and punched the tree directly in front of her with all of her strength. A painful yell ripped out from Karime's mouth as she let herself fall onto the ground on her knees, she cradled her broken hand and held it gently against her body, she never realized she had left a good sized dent in the tree. Huddled on the ground she allowed her emotions to take over her.

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Ichigo had run after Karime blindly, he had followed her through the park and into the forest. He had arrived at the clearing just in time to see Karime take her frustrations out on the tree and for the second time in just a matter of minutes, he had been thoroughly surprised, not only at her actions but also of the strength she seemed to posses. Ichigo eyes had been riveted to the spot on the tree that she punched once he heard a soft, muffled crack come from her hand. Ichigo heard her pained yell and saw her crumble to the ground in a mass of sobs.

Ichigo felt his chest tighten slightly at the sight, it was obvious that she was in immense pain, both physically and emotionally. He walked quietly and slowly over to her hunched form and crouched down next to her, he placed one of his hands carefully on her shaking shoulder.

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Karime gasped mid sob at the sudden contact, her body tensed, ready for a fight as her head swiveled around and up at the intruder, a sharp glare already shooting from her midnight eyes. Ichigo had expected this reaction so he was not taken aback at the ferocity in her eyes, instead he remained completely still and waited for her to react. Karime blinked, her body and eyes loosing all of their fight when she realized who he was, Ichigo's scowl was absent from his face and in it's place there was a soft gentleness. His dark chocolate colored eyes looked down into her obsidian ones with concern. Ichigo didn't really have much experience in dealing with crying girls but he clearly recognized the look in Karime's dark eyes, the look of having lost someone.

"It's gonna be alright, you don't have to worry, I'm here now." Ichigo had no idea what had made him say those words, but he had meant them sincerely and he had no intention of taking them back. He continued looking into her eyes, marveling at their beauty as he watched her emotions through them. As she took in and processed his words, she seemed to hesitate for a moment before she believed him, and once she did she ducked her head and let herself lean into his chest for support. Ichigo moved his arms to wrap securely around her small frame. Karime didn't know why she trusted Ichigo so much and she didn't have the slightest clue as to what possessed her to lean into him like that but she realized that she felt safe with him and so she allowed herself a small moment of weakness before she pushed herself gently away. Somehow, Ichigo's presence had numbed the voices in her mind and the whirlwind of emotions had ebbed away. Karime held her head down avoiding eye contact and her voice was no louder than a whisper as she spoke.

"Thank you Ichigo." I was a short and simple sentence but Ichigo caught the entire heart felt meaning behind it and once again Ichigo felt a light tightness in his chest.

"you okay?" he asked, his usually gruff voice quiet and soft, almost caring. Karime simply nodded, her head still down as she moved to sit back on her legs. Ichigo frowned slightly at the lack of eye contact, but kept observing her.

The rain hadn't let up at all and Ichigo felt like he had just jumped into a pool, he briefly looked down at himself and realized how soaked he really was, he could almost make out the ripples of his muscles under his thin uniform shirt, he had discarded his uniform jacket somewhere along the run because it had become a burden. Ichigo looked back over at Karime only to discover that she was shivering from the cold, he looked further down from her shaking shoulders only to notice with a blush, that she was just as soaked as he was. Karime's white dress shirt was clinging to her body and her… undergarments, ***you mean BRA King?***, were visible. ***black huh? Looks like my type of girl*** Ichigo's hollow snickered. Ichigo mentally cursed at his hollow before noticing a red stain on the hem of Karime's wet shirt, immediately he remembered her hand. Unthinkingly Ichigo reached out and took her injured hand from her lap. Karime looked up at Ichigo somewhat startled and attempted to pull her hand back, but Ichigo kept his gentle hold on her hand. He turned her hand over in his carefully examining her swollen knuckles, Karime nearly blushed at the fact that he was so closely inspecting her bleeding hand and that they were so close together, something she hadn't noticed before.

"Come on, Let's go get your hand fixed up." Ichigo said as he let her take her hand back, he stood up from his crouched position and offered his hands down to Karime to help her stand. Karime nodded once and reached up with her good hand to take his, she kept other hand close to her body as she got up on shaky legs. Karime legs and skirt were almost completely covered in mud and wet grass, her shirt was stained in watery blood and her hair fell down messily around face, the rain trailing down her entire body in thick rivulets of icy water. Her cheeks were flushed and her nose was slightly red from the cold, big droplets of water, both tears and rain, had accumulated on her thick eyelashes and her mouth curved into a slight wince. Ichigo took in her form and nearly smiled when he realized he probably wasn't in great shape either, yet even though Karime was a mess, there was still something that drew Ichigo to her and he suddenly yearned to look into her dark eyes again.

"Come on, my dad owns a clinic, he can fix up your hand." Ichigo began to lead her out of the clearing when Karime gasped and tipped forward. He quickly reached out his hands and held onto her arms preventing her fall. Karime sucked in air through her teeth and grimaced in pain as the foot she had rolled on her stumbled landing while coming down the stairs protested its abuse painfully. The adrenaline coursing through Karime's body had prevented her from feeling any pain before but as it wore off her ankle began throbbing. She grabbed onto Ichigo's arms and lifted her foot off the ground relieving some of the pain. Ichigo looked down and frowned, under all the caked mud he could tell her ankle was also swollen.

"Damn it!" Karime cursed and gritted her teeth.

"Can you walk?" Ichigo asked as he wrapped an arm securely around her shoulders.

"I can hobble…" Karime looked up at Ichigo and he was surprised to see, despite the physical pain she was in and water other issues she had going on right now, a tiny smile gracing her lips.

Karime and Ichigo made they're way out of the park and towards the Kurosaki clinic, Karime leaned heavily on Ichigo, jumping on one foot the whole way while Ichigo supported her and glared at everyone who stared. They had been quite the whole way with the only exception of Karime's soft groans every now and then.

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The rain hadn't let up the entire way and when they got to Ichigo's house they were grateful that most of the mud had washed off them with the rain, but they were soaked to the bone. Ichigo led Karime carefully up the step and through the front door. Karime hopped somewhat ungracefully through the door *_thank god his house is warm, I'm freezing my ass off!_* she then bent down to take off her shoes, a sharp gasp spilling from her lips as a jolt of pain pierced through her entire foot. Ichigo, who had already taken his shoes off turned to help her.

"Here, let me do it, sit on that chair, this might hurt…" Ichigo kneeled down in front of her and quickly hid his blush under his wet and clinging hair, he had never actually been this close to a girls legs before, sure he had carried Rukia around every now and then but that was way different. Ichigo gulped silently as he lifted Karime's foot carefully and her skirt slid back on her thigh. Karime was too preoccupied with her foot to notice. Ichigo very carefully and slowly took off her shoe, looking up to her face now and then to make sure he wasn't hurting her too much.

"Can you take off my stocking too please Ichigo? I can't move my fingers in my right hand…" Karime winced.

"Uh… yeah… but it'll hurt even more since it's tight and wet…"

Karime nodded for him to continue and Ichigo's blushed redder and wider than before. He lifted his hands to her knees and took the top of her black stockings, carefully peeling it down her lean leg.

"Achoo!!" Karime sneezed right as Ichigo was about to pull the stocking over her swollen ankle, thus eliciting a muffled cry from her as her sneeze caused her leg to jerk and Ichigo to pull the stocking off her foot in a quick and painful motion.

"Sorry." Ichigo mumbled, "I'll go and call my dad to fix you up, but first you need to get out of those clothes before you get pneumonia, come on. My sisters have some clothes but I don't think they'll fit you…" Ichigo lead her to the downstairs bathroom, helping her hobble through the house. "…would you mind if I lent you some of my clothes?" Ichigo turned his head away trying to hide another blush. Karime in turn blushed as well.

"It's okay, don't worry about it, I'll be just fine like this, I just need a towel." she mumbled.

"Don't be dumb, Chad would kill me if he found out I let you stay like this and get sick." Ichigo let out a half-hearted laugh, but he immediately regretted his first three words. He and Karime weren't close enough for him to talk to her like that, he had only talked to Rukia like that, why the hell was he letting down his guard? Karime chuckled softly beside him, much to his surprise.

"Yeah, Chad _would_ kill you." another small smile crept across her face, giving Ichigo a bit more courage and confidence.

"But he would probably kill you first for not accepting my hospitality, Chad pretty big on that kind of stuff." he replied and small smile gracing his face as well. Karime lifted an eyebrow at him in surprise. He was right, Chad was big on hospitality, something he had learned from abuelo. Abuelo would also probably be ashamed if he knew she had declined Ichigo's hospitality. Karime bit her lip in thought then turned her face up to Ichigo.

"Fine, I'll wear your clothes."

A triumphant smirk made its way onto his face, he was proud, he usually never won any arguments with Rukia.

"Alright then, wait here I'll be right back."

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After Ichigo had given Rukia a pair of his sweats and a tee shirt, he had left her in the bathroom to change while he changed as well and then gone to look for his father, who like usual, was rarely around when he needed him. Ichigo shook his head, it was probably for the best anyways, he wasn't sure if he wanted Karime to meet him just yet.

Ichigo had gathered bandages, a crutch (which he set by the bathroom door for her) and other medical equipment to fix Karime up himself and had even made some tea for them, while he waited for her in the kitchen. Ichigo felt like he had been waiting forever when she finally hopped into the kitchen on her crutch. Her hair was falling down her face in wet waves but the rest of her looked dry.

Karime was wearing a pair of Ichigo's gray sweats, they had been too long for her so she had rolled the waist band up some, she was also wearing one off his black tee shirts, which she had tied up in the back because it had been to long for her as well.

Ichigo averted his eyes away quickly but he still couldn't help but notice the way his sweats, which hung loosely on his slim hips, hugged hers lovingly, or how his tee shirt, which was slightly stretched over her chest, had never looked better. ***Damn! Why the hell are you looking away King!***

"Thanks for the clothes," Karime said as she came and sat on one of the stools of the kitchen's island.

"Uh yeah," responded Ichigo, quickly beginning to bandage her up.

Ichigo worked silently, asking Karime some questions about whether he was hurting her or how her foot or hand felt every now and then. Karime had also sipped her tea silently.

"Uh… there… I think that's it… unless you're hurt somewhere else?…" Ichigo said as he finished taping the bandage on her hand.

"No, that's it, thank you." she said getting up.

"Okay well, I think you should stay here until it stops raining or until my dad gets here and I can drive you home, so that your bandaged don't get wet."

"Umm, thanks but I'll be okay, I need to go back to school anyways to get my stuff." Karime made her way towards the living room.

"Oh don't worry about that I already called Tatsuki, she said she'd drop it off here after her karate practice. And like I said, you shouldn't ---" Ichigo followed when he was interrupted.

"IIIICCCHHIIIIGGGGOOOO!!!"

Ichigo's eyes widened visibly at the sound off the voice. He could hear other chirpy, happy voices outside. Karime's eyebrows raised at the voice and she turned towards the front door when suddenly it flew open and someone dashed in and started attacking Ichigo. Karime stepped back and was about to throw a lamp at the attacker when she heard a girl's voice at the front door.

"Karime-chan?" asked a girl with black hair and eyes and wearing a soccer uniform. Karime turned around towards the voice.

"K-Karin? Yuzu?" she asked, the said girl ran through the living room to glomp Karime.

"Karime-chan! What are you doing here!?"

"Karime-chan!" shouted another little girl with light brown hair and eyes., while also running towards her.

"Oomph!" Karime was pushed a few steps back by Karin, "Oomph!" and another step back as Yuzu glomped her as well.

Karime's face lit up into a wide smile as the girls hugged her and started chattering loudly, one about a soccer game and the other about a cake recipe. Karime knew immediately that the man attacking Ichigo must be their dad, Kurosaki Isshin. Karime mentally berated herself for not realizing it sooner, but she turned her attention to both girls.

Neither of the girls noticed that Isshin and Ichigo had stopped fighting and were looking at them, Isshin had a happy yet goofy smile on his face while Ichigo was in shock. Karime knew his sisters!? And they were friends!? Such close friends that they called her 'Karime-chan' and talked to her about soccer and cooking!? Such good friends that Karin actually _hugged_ her and acted like a girl again!?

"Hello Karime-chan!" Isshin shouted as he ran over to the girls.

"Hello Kurosaki-san!"

And such good friends that even his dad knew Karime!? What the hell!?

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**A/N: Hehe ^_^ okay so that's it for this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it!! I tried to get some Karin in there at the end in response to a request, and I know it was a little bit but she'll have a bigger part in the next chapter. ^_^**

**Again I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I also hope you'll review it ^_^**

**~Blackcat**


	5. The Kurosakis

**A/N: ^_^ Thank you all again for your reviews, faves, and alerts!! Also if you guys have any questions don't hesitate to send me a message. ^_^ **

**Okay so we've got a little Kurosaki family reunion in this Chapter, I hope you enjoy!! ^_^**

**Oh and also the Karin, Yuzu and Isshin tend to call Karime, 'Rime-chan as well.**

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_**Previously:**_

_Karime's face lit up into a wide smile as the girls hugged her and started chattering loudly, one about a soccer game and the other about a cake recipe. Karime knew immediately that the man attacking Ichigo must be their dad, Kurosaki Isshin. Karime mentally berated herself for not realizing it sooner, but she turned her attention to both girls._

_Neither of the girls noticed that Isshin and Ichigo had stopped fighting and were looking at them, Isshin had a happy yet goofy smile on his face while Ichigo was in shock. Karime knew his sisters!? And they were friends!? Such close friends that they called her 'Karime-chan' and talked to her about soccer and cooking!? Such good friends that Karin actually hugged her and acted like a girl again!? _

"_Hello Karime-chan!" Isshin shouted as he ran over to the girls._

"_Hello Kurosaki-san!"_

_And such good friends that even his dad knew Karime!? What the hell!?_

_**Chapter 5:**_

Both Karin and Yuzu were talking excitedly about their day when Yuzu suddenly grabbed at Karime's right hand to take her into the kitchen.

"Ouch." blurted Karime at the jab of pain that came from her hand. Yuzu, Karin and Isshin immediately looked down at her hand and Isshin was the first to notice Karime's clothes and bandaged foot.

"ICHIGO!! MY SON!! I KNOW THAT KARIME-CHAN IS BEAUTIFUL BUT YOU MUST STILL BE CAREFUL!! YOU SHOULDN'T BE SO ROUGH IN YOUR LOVE MAKING!!" Isshin wailed at the top of his lungs, then ran over to Ichigo, who was still trying to figure out what the hell was going on exactly, and began to pummel him into the ground.

Karime eyes widened at Isshin's words are her cheeks turned a dark red at their implication. She was about to respond when Karin spoke to her in a serious voice.

"What happened Karime?" Karin looked up at Karime with a concerned look on her face, Yuzu also looked up at Karime but along with the concerned look she also looked about ready to cry. Karime felt instantly guilty for making the girls worry but she couldn't tell them the whole truth, they would feel worse, so she decided to tell them a half-truth; Karin would be able to see right through her lies anyways.

"Umm, I was running when I stumbled and rolled my ankle and then my hand hit a tree…" Karime relpied vaguely while looking away in embarrassment, she hated lying to good people. Isshin immediately ran over to her to check the bandages, leaving a fuming Ichigo on the ground. "Ichigo was kind enough to bring me here to bandage me up." Karime smiled up at Isshin.

"OH ICHIGO!! DADDY IS SO PROUD OF YOU!! HELPING A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS!! OH MASAKI OUR SON IS A TRUE GENTLEMAN!!!" Isshin cried as he ran over to his wife poster. Karime's eye twitched at the 'damsel in distress' comment, but she turned to look at Ichigo who had been silent for a long time. Ichigo who was finally able to concentrate on something other than avoiding his dad's kicks and punches, looked over at Isshin.

"Okay, what the hell is going on!? How do you all know each other!?" he asked somewhat annoyed.

"Ugh, you're so dense Ichi-nii!" said Karin half-exasperated. "Karime is my soccer coach, that's how we met, --"

"And that's how me and daddy met her too!" yelled Yuzu.

"And she's Chad's cousin." continued Karin, seemingly bored at having to go through a whole explanation. Isshin continued to praise his 'beautiful' son's chivalry in the background.

"How do you know she's Chad's cousin?" Ichigo asked more curious than annoyed now.

"He would come to pick her up after every practice, they live in a bad neighborhood you know, it wouldn't be cool to just let her walk home alone," Karime mock rolled her eyes at Karin's statement, Karin sent her a soft glare in return and continued, "even _if_ she can defend herself, guys are guys and they would probably still say and do stupid things."

Ichigo's mind momentarily shifted back to the day's earlier events and Oba Kaitou's idiocy, and he decided that he agreed with Karin and Chad.

"Karin what am I two? And who's the supposed adult here? Me or you?" Karime asked jokingly.

"Karin-nee is right 'Rime-chan! You shouldn't be in that neighborhood by yourself!" Yuzu chimed in.

"Geez, you guys are such moms" Karime mock-huffed and fell back onto the couch acting like an annoyed teenager. Ichigo simply looked on in amazement at the relationship his sisters and Karime seemed to have. Neither Karin nor Yuzu had been that close with anyone since their mother had died and they had been so sensitive to the word 'mom' too.

"Where is Chad anyways?" asked Karin. Karime was at a loss for words, she didn't know what to say and she didn't know if she could say it properly.

"Chad-kun had to go back to Mexico because their abuelo got sick," Isshin answered easily, finally regaining his composure and speaking in a semi-serious yet understanding voice. "he called from school to let me know." Ichigo fell silent in the background. Chad told his dad!?

"Why didn't you tell us!!" Karin yelled pulling back her fist and getting ready to throw a punch at her dad. Isshin's face fell out of all seriousness and turned into a huge grin, he threw his hands into the air and shouted.

"Because it was a Surprise!!! 'Rime-chan is going to be staying with us until Chad-kun comes back!!"

Karime who had been more than surprised that Isshin knew, gaped like a fish out of water, an expression similar to the one Ichigo was wearing, when he stated she was going to be living with them.

"what!?" Ichigo asked, but was swiftly ignored.

"…uh…no Kurosaki-san, I appreciate your offer, but I can't impose on you like that--" Karime began.

"Nonsense my beautiful child!! It's no imposition at all!! I'm sure Karin and Yuzu would love to have you here with us!!" shouted Isshin.

"and besides you shouldn't be staying alone in such a neighborhood, specially with winter coming, it will get dark much earlier now." added Yuzu in a worried voice.

"P-Please, you don't have to worry about me, I'll be fine," Karime attempted to be reassuring.

"Karime-chan," spoke Isshin, the light seriousness back in his tone. "Chad-kun called to ask me for a favor, you see I know about his pact with Ichigo and Chad-kun wanted to make sure you wouldn't be alone."

Karime was once again at a loss for words, the way Isshin spoke made it seem as if he knew everything that had happened and more, as if he knew why she would need to be taken care of and maybe why she shouldn't be alone. She looked up at him and deep into his eyes as she tried desperately to find something. But just before she could really get a grasp on anything he turned back into his usually dorky self.

"…K-Kurosaki-san…" Karime whispered as Isshin started babbling on loudly and taking up Karin and Yuzu's attention. Ichigo also just looked at his dad, he never acted like this unless it was something serious, and he too had detected something else, some deeper meaning in his words.

"He's right," said Ichigo snapping out of his thoughts and turning to look at Karime, he was still sitting on the ground were his dad had beat him earlier. "You should stay here until Chad get's back." Ichigo looked straight into Karime's midnight eyes. "You know, the whole 'hospitality' thing." He barely smiled trying to lighten her mood.

"Yeah, 'Rime-chan!! You can't say no! We already went to Chad's apartment to pick up your things!!" Yuzu half-yelled at Karime while running to the front door to get Karime's luggage.

Karime eyes widened once again, but then softened in resignation. *_You've always looked out for me haven't you Chad? …Thanks..._* Karime smiled widely at the Kurosaki family and nodded once.

"Okay, I'll stay."

"YAY!! OH DADDY IS SO HAPPY HIS FAMILY IS GROWING!!! YUZU! KARIN! WE MUST CELEBRATE!! ICHIGO, take 'Rime-chan's luggage and show her up to her new room!" Isshin yelled and starting running randomly around the room, flinging his arms every which way and purposely hitting Ichigo every time he came close to him.

"Okay!! Stop!! You're gonna scare her away goat face!!" Karin yelled at her dad as her foot connected with Isshin's gut.

"Yuzu, 'Rime-chan!! Karin's being mean to daddy!!" Isshin wined as he crawled to Yuzu and starting pulling on her skirt. Karime giggled lightly at his antics.

"Don't do that, you'll encourage him." Ichigo walked over to Karime while carrying her bags, he helped her off the couch, "I hope they don't make you run away," he said and started leading her to the stairs. He ran a hand through his hair exasperatedly as he pointedly ignored his arguing family in the background. Karime chuckled and hobbled along beside him.

"This isn't my first time being around them, you should've seen him at Karin's games. They're really nice though, you've got a really great family Ichigo, you're lucky." Karime carefully looked away, avoiding Ichigo's eyes as he helped her up the stairs.

"Um, I don't know which one will be your room…" Ichigo began but his voice faded away as they reached the top of the stairs. All along the hallway there were balloons and ribbons, and apparently they were leading to Karime's room. Karime raised an eyebrow.

"….. They work really fast don't they?" she asked looking towards the door to her new room. On her door there was a huge sign with her name in yellow and black, little red hearts were all over it and it was almost completely covered in glitter. "…uh…" she turned to look at Ichigo noticing that he kind of looked scared of the girliness of the sign and a little confused at which room it was. "I'm not taking over someone's room am I? I would really be fine back at Chad's place." she exclaimed quickly.

"Uh no, don't worry, this was my dad's office, but he never used it, we kind of just used it for storage before but it's your room now." he rubbed the back of his neck as he put her bags down and opened the door.

Much to their amazement and relief, the inside of the room was pretty plain, there was just a bed, a couple of night stands and a dresser.

"Okay," Ichigo placed her bags on the bed and started walking back out, "so that door at the end of the hall is Karin and Yuzu's room, that door near it is the bathroom, this door here in front is my room and this is your room, downstairs is the kitchen, living room, the master bedroom, the other bathroom and the clinic." He explained.

"Thank you Ichigo, for everything, really." spoke quietly while looking at the ground, she held onto the crutch tightly and her still damp hair obscured her face.

"IICCHHIIIIIGGGGGOOOOOO!!!!" Ichigo jumped at the voice and cringed. "DON'T YOU DARE DEFLOWER OUR LITTLE 'RIME-CHAN!!!" came Isshin voice from downstairs.

"well uh… I'll let you get settled." He growled, he turned around and started to walk back down the stairs a killing intent clearly visible in his eyes. As soon as he got to the top of the stairs two blurs which he heard to be Karin and Yuzu, flew past him and into Karime's room.

****************************************************************************************************************************************************

Ichigo walked back up the stairs to Karime's room, he had taken over dinner duties so that Yuzu and Karin could help Karime get settled in, seeing as Karime had limited mobility. The girls had eaten dinner in her room and so Ichigo had been left to do all the after-dinner cleaning duties by himself since his dad had gotten a patient. As we neared Karime's room he could hear a loud voices coming from her room, and he couldn't remember the last time that Karin and Yuzu had been so loud when they weren't arguing or fighting with their dad. Karin was loudly and excitedly recapping a game she had seen and he could hear Yuzu laughing in the background at what would be no doubt Karin reenacting the game, he could also hear Karime's laughter along with a request for a slow-mo reenactment, silence and then a another loud burst of laughter. The door to the room was open and Ichigo peeked in, he saw Karin jumping on the bed while Karime limped from the dresser to the bed putting away the clothes Yuzu handed her; the events from earlier that day seemingly forgotten to Karime.

"--and then he did this really awesome scissor kick like this!" Karin jumped up and clumsily fell on her back on the bed. The girls all burst into laughter and Ichigo chuckled, he was happy that his sisters were happy, he then looked towards the source of the happiness and nearly choked on his laugher. Karime's eyes were glittering like he'd never seen before and they seemed to get darker and deeper, more open to his prying eyes even though she was unaware of his presence. However, in their depths, behind the happiness she was now showing, there was a deeper, darker pool of sorrow and what Ichigo thought looked to be confusion.

"Ichi-nii! We're done now!" Yuzu exclaimed in happiness running over to Ichigo and looking up at him with her bright eyes.

"Good, 'cause it's time for you two to go to bed, Karime must tired and we all have school tomorrow." Ichigo said as he ruffled her hair.

***************************************************************************************************************************************************

Without much fuss the girls had gone to bed along with the rest of the Kurosaki household, yet Karime stayed up in her new bed. She felt guilty that she had allowed herself to be happy for a moment while her abuelo was so ill. Karime looked up at the ceiling and sighed.

_~*~ FLASHBACK ~*~_

"_Always remember Karime that life is much too short for us to not be happy whenever we can, no matter what happens I want you to always be happy. Promise me that you will always try to be as happy as you can Karime." Abuelo spoke in his deep, aged and wise voice._

Karime turned over in her bed to look out her window into the black night. The soft murmur of her voice, no louder than the cool breeze coming through her window, disappeared into the night.

****************************************************************************************************************************************************

_~*~ Fast forward a few Days ~*~_

Chad had called Karime as soon as he was able to see their abuelo and since that day it seemed as if a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders, it was as if she was more willing to be happy.

The Kurosaki family and Karime had fallen into a nice routine, Isshin woke up the earliest to open the clinic, then Ichigo and Karime would wake up and have a quite breakfast together, since neither were morning people, soon after they would leave for school and finally Karin and Yuzu would wake up, have breakfast and walk to school together. In the afternoon they would all arrive at home at roughly the same times, have a snack, do homework, have dinner, do more homework or hang out and finally go back to bed and then the same routine would start again the next day.

And yet even though the routine had been much the same before Karime came into the Kurosaki houshold, it was somehow more lively, Ichigo noted. Karime would leave little notes on post-its to Karin and Yuzu in the mornings, short little things like "Good luck on your tests!" or "Have a great day!" or even a lame joke like,

"Why did the cookie go to the doctor? --because it felt Crumb-y!! :) ".

The walks to and from school were not as quite either since Ichigo and Karime usually made small talk before Keigo and Mizuiro joined them. Karime also helped Yuzu in the kitchen and Karin with her kicks since Isshin had removed her bandages a couple of days after she got hurt saying she had just been bruised and that, by the looks of it, she hadn't really needed bandages in the first place. Isshin had even made fun of Ichigo for worrying so much about her but Ichigo knew exactly what he had seen, Karime had clearly had fractures not just bruising. Karime had simply shrugged and told him she was a fast healer. Ichigo however was still not convinced.

"Come on! Earth to Ichigo, hey are you still alive!?" Karime yelled at him from the doorway.

"…what?" he looked over from his bed.

"I was asking you if you finished the math homework so you could help me out on this..." she showed him her math book.

"Uh yea, what do you need?" he sat up.

"Okay," she walked in, she was wearing a simple yellow tee shirt and a pair of faded, ripped blue jeans. "There's only this one stupid problem that I can't get," she sat down beside him on his bed, "Now why the hell can't I get the right answer!? I already looked over everything and I swear it's right but the damn book says I'm wrong!" she huffed and held her both book and paper out to him.

Ichigo took her stuff and glanced at the problem on her paper and then the one in the book for only a second.

"Oh, I see what you did wrong--"

"What!! You just barely looked at it and you already know where I screwed up!" Karime took the paper from his hands and stared at it incredulously. Her brow furrowed as she tried to see what she did. "Ugh!! I can't see it! What did I do!?"

Ichigo nearly laughed at the helpless look on her face.

"You copied the problem wrong onto your paper, see this exponent here? It's supposed to be negative…"

"……WHAT!! Are you serious!!" Karime leaned across Ichigo's chest to look at the book in his lap, her back almost touching his chest. She sat there for a moment glancing back and forth from her paper to the book before she sat up again and let herself fall back onto Ichigo's bed, she covered her face with her paper. "That stupid book hates me." she mumbled.

Ichigo looked over at her and blushed, the shirt Karime was wearing had lifted up slightly exposing a thin strip of caramel skin right below her navel. Ichigo heard his hollow laugh deep within his mind.

"Okay," Karime sat up again and took her book from Ichigo's lap, "… as soon as this class is over, I'm burning this stupid book." she mumbled before proceeding to redo the problem.

Ichigo watched her intently, he watched her eyebrows come together in concentration as she wrote, her long eyelashes casting soft shadows on her cheeks and he watched her bite her lower lip as she did mental math. Something deep within Ichigo stirred, something he couldn't quite pinpoint but something that made him want to come closer to her, to those soft, kissable lip---

*_woah… what!?_*

***hahaha! Who could blame you King? She does look pretty innocent and enticing and sexy and--***

*_okay, shut up! I'm--_*

"There! I got it!" Karime looked up at Ichigo, an accomplished smile adorning her features. He almost smiled back but then remembered his reputation and reverted back to his perma-scowl, he had already smiled way to much at her since the day she came to live with them.

"…umm…" Karime looked down and folded her book with her paper inside, she turned to look up at Ichigo a semi-worried expression on her face. "Ichigo… I'm really grateful that you and your family have been letting me live here, but before I stay here any longer you need to know something… you need to know why I'm here in the first place… Ichigo, I didn't just decide one day to leave Mexico and come to Japan… coming here to live with Chad was the only option I had…" she rung her hands nervously and swallowed, "The reason I'm here is because… I'm curs---"

"KARIME!!" Karin appeared in the doorway suddenly, effectively but accidentally scaring the bejeezus out of Ichigo and Karime, "The game is on and your team's losing!!" she ran in and grabbed Karime pulling her out of the room in a flash.

"K-Karin! Wait! I was talking to-- Aiyaa!! Karin! You're going to kill us! Don't run down the stairs like that!!….. What the hell!? Why are they loosing!? What happened!?…. But no wait I was talking to Ichigo… I have to--"

"Oh don't worry 'Rime-chan,! Ichigo just left, he got some urgent call from one of his friends!!" Isshin shouted as he came out of the kitchen carrying a huge bowl of popcorn and wearing the Barcelona FC jersey with matching face paint and a blue and red wig. "YAY!! Daddy is so happy he gets to spend some quality time with his girls!!" Isshin threw the popcorn bowl into the air and tackled Karin, Karime and Yuzu into a group hug.

"Your dad doesn't have much of a space bubble does he?" Karime asked as she tried to escape Isshin's grasp and Karin random punches and kicks.

****************************************************************************************************************************************************

Karime was sitting on the roof of the Kurosaki household looking up at the clouds, although the scene was peaceful, there was turmoil within her mind, her brows furrowed in thought. She had not seen Ichigo since she had last tried to talk with him a couple days ago, he had not come back to the Kurosaki's house nor had he gone to school. Karime hadn't asked anyone what was going on because everyone else seemed fine with it and because she didn't want to butt in to anyone's business, but she needed to talk to Ichigo soon, before she got too comfortable here and lost her nerve, she bit her lip.

"Hey!! Goat face, where's Karime!?" Karime heard Karin yell from somewhere within the house. Isshin then began to say something pervy at which Karime rolled her eyes but chuckled but Karin beat him up for.

" 'Rime-chan!" Yuzu called.

"Coming Yuzu!" Karime got up a walked carefully to the edge of the roof, she smiled and jumped down landing gracefully on the ground two stories below. Just as she was about to walk in both Karin and Yuzu came running out at her.

"Karime," Karin regained her posture and tried to act cool, "Yuzu needs to buy something at the store for dinner, you comin' or what?" Karime smiled widely.

****************************************************************************************************************************************************

Karime, Yuzu and Karin stumbled out of the grocery store in fits of laughter, each girl carrying one small bag full of food. Yuzu blushed as she told them of the red-haired boy 'Jinta' that she had met. The girls walked down the street laughing and talking freely.

Suddenly Karime felt a strange wave of fear rush over her, she felt as if an ice-cold wind blew through her and as if the earth trembled. She stopped suddenly mid-stride and her eyes widened, she felt the goosebumps on her skin rise and her throat go dry. Karime spun to look at Karin and saw that she too had felt something, though not nearly as clearly as Karime, the girl looked more confused than anything, Yuzu on the other hand just kept talking happily.

"K-Karin! Run home now, as fast as you can and whatever you do don't stop or turn around until you get there!" Karime dropped her bag and started running in the opposite direction. Karin's face looked scared and even more confused but she still nodded and took Yuzu's hand.

"W-Wait! Karime! What about you!?" she managed to yell before Karime turned the corner.

"I'll be fine! Don't come looking for me!" Karime yelled over her shoulder.

Karime forced her legs to push her as fast as they possibly could, she ran faster than she had the day Chad left, this time she was fueled by pure, unadulterated fear, a terror that crept deep into her bones, and into the darkest depths of her soul. Karime knew exactly what it is she had felt, she had felt it countless times in Mexico, this feeling lead to the reason so many people had gotten hurt, ever since she was a child, this feeling had haunted her ever since she could remember. This 'power' she had felt though was all too familiar, this one was coming strictly for her, he had always been coming for her.

*_I need to find a big open space… the park?… no it's too far away I won't get there in time and there might be other people… Shit!! He's getting closer!… please be safe Karin, Yuzu!!… the school!!_*

Karime's mind screamed as she sprinted towards Karakura high, there would be no one there at this time and the field behind it was big enough. She ran past the gates to the back. Just as she was about to run into the middle of the field a huge entity materialized in front of her, causing Karime to skid to a stop on the dirt. She immediately tried to back up only to find that she was between the back of the school and the bone-white mask. Karime looked up defiantly into the lifeless black and red eyes, a vicious sneer on her face.

"Soul Eater." she spit out, a hateful glower in her black eyes.

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**^_^ hehehe**

**Okay so that was chapter 5, I was going to continue but then that would've made the chapter super long (according to me) so I decided to cut it there, also because this chapter went a couple pages longer than the chapters I've written so far the next might be shorter (or not, I'll know when I write it :D)**

**Right, so I hope you enjoyed the chapter!! I hope to get the next one up asap too!!**

**Thanks again for all the reviews, faves and alerts, you guys really make my day ^_^ **

**~Blackcat**

**P.S. Ichigo was off fighting hollows and then getting healed by Urahara for the couple of days that Karime couldn't find him… incase you were wondering… ^_^**


	6. Karime's Fight

**A/N: Gaaah! I'm back after such a long time! Finally, here's chapter 6! I will do my best to continue the story in a timely manner! Thank you to everyone who has read my story! Much love to all you guys! ^_^**

**~Blackcat**

**_Previously:_**

Karime's mind screamed as she sprinted towards Karakura high, there would be no one there at this time and the field behind it was big enough. She ran past the gates to the back. Just as she was about to run into the middle of the field a huge entity materialized in front of her, causing Karime to skid to a stop on the dirt. She immediately tried to back up only to find that she was between the back of the school and the bone-white mask. Karime looked up defiantly into the lifeless black and red eyes, a vicious sneer on her face.

"Soul Eater." she spit out, a hateful glower in her black eyes.

**_Chapter 6:_**

The Soul Eater cackled as it's mouth twisted into a vicious grin. It's tongue lashed out to taste the air between them. Karime stepped into a fighting stance, in all her life, she had never actually engaged in fighting the monster, she had only run away, she had always run away. She was scared, terrified of this thing, of this curse. Because of her... of it... she had never been able to be close to anyone. Even though her entire reality came crashing down on her, she couldn't explain why now, she was willing to fight.

"I've been looking for you, Karime." The sickeningly sadistic voice of the Soul Eater swirled around Karime, she felt the words raise goosebumps on her skin, her hands suddenly felt clammy and her chest tightened.

Karime fisted her hands and put them up in a boxing block. The Soul Eater howled with laughter and stumbled back a few paces.

"After so many years looking for your soul, I will have it! Idiot girl! You can't defeat me!" The Soul Eater made to lunge for Karime but she stood her ground fiercely, the wind whipped around her body causing her school uniform to whip against her body as well.

"No." She stated, "I will no longer run away from you, but I won't let you take my soul either. I will never let you take my soul, even if that means having to die here. You won't have it." Karime felt a hot something forming deep in the pit of her stomach... no... it wasn't in her stomach... it was in her very soul. The hot feeling was emerging from the depths of her soul. She could feel it slowly start to pulse through her body. It was almost like hot pulsing blood bringing new life into her. Her body felt stronger, she felt braver, more capable of taking this thing head on.

The Soul Eater could taste the change in the air, but it had no intention of giving up. Its huge eyes bulged further out of his head and its horned tail lifted itself off the ground preparing for an attack. Suddenly, the Soul Eater whipped its tail around himself and lashed it into a direct frontal attack towards Karime.

Karin ran home as fast as she could, dragging a frightened Yuzu behind her. As soon as she saw the clinic she began shouting for her dad, her brother, for anyone who could help her.

"Dad! Ichigo! Ichigo! Daaad! Daddy! Ichigooo!"

Ichigo, had just returned from Urahara's shop and had been laying in bed when he heard Karin's frantic shouts for help. He shot up from his bed and ran down to meet them. Adrenaline filled his veins and his heart pounded in his ears, the thought of his family being in danger terrified him more than anything else.

As soon as Karin and Yuzu saw Ichigo they both burst into tears.

"Karin, Yuzu! What's wrong!?" Ichigo picked both of the girls up and quickly examined them. "Where's Karime? What happened?"

"Onii-chaaan!" Yuzu cried, not knowing what was happening but scared nonetheless. Ichigo turned to Karin.

"Rime-chan! She left! She ran! There was something! Didn't you feel it!? Something! I think Rime-chan went to find it! She told us not to look for her, but you have to go help her Ichi-nii! She's out there fighting something!" Karin's grabbed Ichigo's arm and pointed down the street in the direction they'd just come from. Tears streaming down her face as well. Ichigo recognized those tears, he hadn't seen them many times but he knew exactly what they were, tears of loss, of being afraid of losing someone.

"Karin, take Yuzu inside and calm down, I'll go find Karime and bring her back, don't worry. Stay inside." Ichigo started running down the street as fast as he could, as soon as he was sure to be out of eyesight, he used his Substitute Soul Reaper badge. He grabbed his body and jumped to the top of the nearest building. He tried to pinpoint Karime's reiatsu but even using the ribbons technique he wasn't able to. He hadn't been around her long enough and her reiatsu wasn't strong enough to be detected by someone as reiatsu-impaired as him. Ichigo started to feel worried. Karin had been really shaken up, it was certainly uncommon. Her words replayed in his mind. That's when he felt the presence of a strong hollow materialize somewhere in the town. He left his body and took off running across the rooftops in the general direction in which he had detected the hollow. Suddenly Karin's words and the presence of the hollow matched up.

*_Maybe if I can find the hollow, I'll find Karime as well. Maybe she was affected by my reiatsu and freaked out when she sensed the hollow..." _He thought.

**_*Better hurry King...* _**His hollow taunted in the back of his mind.

He felt the hollow materialize and dematerialize in several parts of the city until it finally stayed still in one place. Ichigo took off again to find the hollow. Although Ichigo was bad at pinpointing reiatsu, he had improved enough to know that the hollow was somewhere near or around the high school. As Ichigo shunpo-ed over the buildings in the direction of the school, he looked down every now and then trying to spot Karime somewhere below.

As Ichigo came upon the school he felt the presence of an unknown and fairly weaker reiatsu. He didn't know whose it was but he felt it was at odds with the reiatsu of the hollow.

Karime made to dodge the Soul Eater's tail, but it caught her left ankle, the incredible force and momentum of the attack twisted Karime's body around and caused her to fall violently onto the ground. The Soul Eater cackled again at Karime's futile effort to defend herself. Its tail lashed out towards her again before she could get up, this time connecting effectively with her abdomen and sending her flying into the school's brick wall. Karime felt her bones reverberate painfully against the impact and her skull felt like it would crack. She fell to the ground again with a heavy thud. Her mind raced again.

_*Am I really going to die here, like this? Is this all I really have to give?" _

Karime tried to push away those thoughts, what had happened to the feeling of empowerment that she had felt earlier? What had happened to her resolve to survive? She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, was this really going to be her end? An image of her grandfather and Chad came into her mind's eye, followed by images of Karin, Yuzu and even Ichigo. Karime then decided that whatever happened, she couldn't let them down and she wouldn't let this thing, this curse, control her life any longer.

She felt the heat begin to pulse through her body again faintly at first but she felt her legs and arms begin to warm up. Karime grunted as she picked herself up off the ground, she carelessly dusted off her uniform, accidentally smearing it with blood from her cuts. She stepped forward again and put her hands back up into blocking position. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the Soul Eater, her resolve was complete.

Once more the Soul Eater lashed its tail out at Karime in an attack similar to the first, but while the first time she had only seen the blur of its tail, this time she saw it all, from the initial twitch. She side stepped in time and dodged it easily. The enormous Soul Eater stumbled back in shock and Karime took the opportunity to jump up to its eye level and deliver a bone crushing punch to the center of its white mask. A faint crack appeared as the Soul Eater jumped back from the blow. Karime landed back on the ground heavily but still standing. She couldn't comprehend how she had been able to move that fast or jump that high or hit with so much power and without having broken her own hand, but she could feel the hotness continue to pulse through her and accumulate in her limbs.

The Soul Eater roared in anger, like Karime, it couldn't understand her sudden increase in power and above human abilities. The Soul Eater started to grow even bigger, it looked to Karime almost as if it was evolving right in front of her. Its tail grew five giant horns at the end and its back became covered in spikes. Its mouth and pointed teeth grew so large and wide it almost looked like its face would split in half. Another head, identical to the first grew out from beside it and its giant claws dug deep into the earth. Karime had never seen anything more hideously terrifying before in her life. The Soul Eater grew to about the same height as the four-story school. It let a horrible, screamed roar rip through the air.

Karime would have trembled in fear and would have most certainly run away had it not been for her decision of ending everything here and now. She fisted her hands again and moved her body into a fighting stance. Her actions and the fierce, unafraid look in her dark eyes angered the Soul Eater even more and it charged at her with full force. This time, Karime was barely able to dodge the horns on the tail by jumping into the air but she wasn't fast enough to completely dodge one of the heads that rushed towards her. One of the Soul Eater's giant protruding fangs caught her thigh and left a large gash down to her knee. Karime felt the warm blood trickle down her leg and soak her socks but she kept her eyes on the monster. The Soul Eater continued attacking Karime relentlessly, not giving her time to attack him herself or to fully dodge its attacks.

Karime picked herself up from the ground carefully, she felt her muscles and bones protest against the abuse. Her uniform was ripped, soaked with blood and sweat, and caked with dirt. She could feel every single cut, bruise and broken bone in her body. She wiped off the blood that had pooled at the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand and moved back into a fighting position. Her dark eyes seemed to have gotten darker, she glowered at the Soul Eater and spit out whatever blood was left inside her mouth in its direction. Her entire body was in immense pain, but even so, she would fight until her body could no longer move.

The Soul Eater shrieked shrilly at Karime, and she could see in its masks several minute cracks. She had managed to land several blows, but she had not caused nearly as much damage as it was inflicting on her. Karime was ready to attack again, her limbs were hot, almost as if they were on fire, if she could only dodge and inflict more blows she might have a chance to walk away from the fight with her life. Karime fisted her hands and ran as fast as she could directly toward one of the Soul Eater's faces, the face that had popped out second.

As soon as Ichigo got to the school he could hear and see part of the battle going on behind it. He shunpo-ed to the back of the school half expecting to see a Shinigami battling, but what he saw instead had nearly made him drop out of the sky.

There, out in the middle of the field, clearly fighting the hollow stood a bloodied and beat girl. Several gashes on her legs and arms bled profusely, her hair, matted with blood and dirt, stuck to her face. She was wearing the remains of a school uniform, but Ichigo couldn't quite make out who she was.

Ichigo's protective instinct kicked in and he made to shunpo over to protect the girl when he crashed against some sort of barrier. His first thought was of Orihime, the shield she used, but this was completely different, although he couldn't actually see it, he could feel it when he pressed his hand up to it. He had no idea who or what was causing the field, if it was the hollow or the girl, but as he had never before encountered a hollow with such abilities, he assumed it was the girl. Ichigo tightened his hands around his zanpakutou. He could see the girl battling the hollow on the other side, she wasn't faring well at all.

Ichigo tensed, he felt powerless, he stood, ready to release a gestuga tensho at the barrier but hesitating. He let out an aggravated yell. He could see through the dust that the girl was sorely loosing and in very bad physical shape. He didn't think she'd last much longer.

Out of the corner of her eye Karime could see its tail lash out towards her from one side and from the other she could see it's other face hurtling towards her. At the last moment, right before her fist could make contact with the mask on the second face, she slowed down a fraction of a second and used the Soul Eater's tail's momentum, which was right behind her, to twist her body and propel herself towards the other mask. There, right beneath the Soul Eater's right eye, Karime landed the strongest kick she could manage, she heard a loud crack and felt her ankle bones grind against each other. The pain blinded her and she was caught in the arm by a tail horn. The Soul Eater flung her body out to the middle of the field and she landed violently on the ground. A pained yell ripped through her entire body. She could feel the broken bones in her left arm and both legs tear into the surrounding muscles. Tears clouded her vision, or maybe she was just about to pass out from the pain. With enormous effort, Karime turned her head to look at the Soul Eater and through all the pain her body was enduring she managed to crack a smile. She had broken off a fairly large portion of the Soul Eater's mask. It's second head hung limply, Karime had assumed rightly, the second head had only served as a distraction while the first head was the only one that actually mattered. Karime coughed up blood. She knew her body was broken, she knew that soon she wouldn't be able to move anymore. She closed her eyes tightly and struggled to feel the heat within her soul again.

"You bitch!" The Soul Eater shrieked, "I'll make you pay for this! After I kill you, I will kill everyone you've ever held dear! I can smell their souls on you! I will find them and give them all slow and painful deaths, starting with your dear cousin and those girls! That old man who tried to stop me from finding you, if he's still alive I'll go back to him and make sure he wishes to have never had anything to do with you! Everyone you've ever loved will die by my hand!" The Soul Eater's tongue darted out from its mouth and wound itself painfully tight around Karime's leg before lifting her off the ground and slamming her body back down.

Karime couldn't even scream from the pain, she felt her chest collapse, heard the muffled cracks of her ribs, she felt blood trickle out from her mouth. What was left of her uniform was caked with sweat, blood and dirt. Karime could feel a cold darkness start to creep into her body, she was starting to lose consciousness, her vision became even more blurry and the colors started to fade. She felt a huge pressure on her chest, her heart beat loudly in her ears and she could feel every heartbeat press against her ribs.

_*No.*_ Karime thought, _*I cannot let it end like this, I will not let it end like this!*_

The girl, Ichigo thought, fought the way Rukia had when she lost her Shinigami powers. Was this another Shinigami in a gigai?

_*What the hell is going on?*_ Thought Ichigo angrily.

Ichigo saw the girl slammed into the ground repeatedly by the hollow. His eyes were wide, he was horrified at the way her body hit the ground limply. Even from so far away, he heard her bones crack, blood spurted from her gashes, he heard her muffled cry of pain and he couldn't hold back anymore. She'd die if she didn't get help right away. Ichigo lifted his zanpakutou.

At the same time that Karime felt the coldness enter her body she felt the hotness start to pool in the center of her chest. At first it was small and faint but it grew, it was as if an immensely hot sphere was forming itself within her. She could feel her insides start to burn with the heat. Somehow it felt familiar, it wasn't painful like her other wounds, it was a strangely comforting burn. Karime's breathing slowed almost to a stop, she forced whatever the hotness was to accumulate faster and more within her. Her mind was too far gone to think logically, so her instinct took over, her body knew what to do even if her mind was too slow to register it. Karime felt the sphere of heat swell until she thought it would burst right out of her body, with all of the last of the energy she could muster she kept the sphere inside.

The Soul Eater's tongue lashed out at Karime again and pierced right through her abdomen before wrapping itself roughly around her and lifting her off the ground again, this time bringing her limp body right up to its face.

"You will not die before I consume you! I will have the pleasure of consuming your soul while you are still alive!" It howled right at her before shaking her violently.

"Fuck..." her voice came out feeble, almost a whisper, it hurt to speak, to breath. She managed to open one eye, the other had swollen shut from a blow. Her cut and swollen lips barely moved as she spoke, "...you."

The Soul Eater cackled at her reply, "Bitch! Do you still think you have choice!?"

Karime lifted her head and looked directly into its eyes, the smallest of smirks formed at the corners of her lips. She felt the sphere of heat within her on the verge of bursting.

She could feel the rage emanating from the Soul Eater. Karime didn't have to say a word, her smirk said it all, although she would die, she'd take the Soul Eater down with her. She had won after all.

Immediately after Karime smirked at the Soul Eater, the hot sphere burst out through her body. Karime was able to see the Soul Eater's eyes widen in panic right before the white, fiery blast engulfed them. Soon after, she felt the Soul Eater disintegrate as everything went black again and she fell towards the ground. Then entire thing had happened in a matter of minutes, but it was finally over, she wouldn't have to run again.

Karime lost consciousness as soon as she hit the ground, her broken body not able to resist any more abuse or pain. The cold blackness overtook her mind and body.

Ichigo hesitated a few seconds, then watched horrified as the hollow pierced the girl through with its tongue and bring her to its face, he heard its voice although he couldn't make out what he'd said and just before Ichigo was about to release a getsuga tenshou, he was able to see the girl's good eye. It was an obsidian black iris that melted right into the midnight pupil, and right before the explosion, a flicker of fire lit up within it.

Ichigo felt the barrier disintegrate, and the last shockwave of the blast pushed him back. He quickly recovered from the force of the explosion and shunpo-ed to the girl, the hollow was gone, but Ichigo was too late to catch her before her fall.

As soon as he reached her, he gingerly turned her over and gently pushed her hair back away from her face. He could see, even through her muscles, that she had many broken bones, and large spots on her skin were quickly bruising, turning a dark purple color. Half of her face was unrecognizably swollen, bruised and bloody. Ichigo nearly choked when he was finally able to recognize the girl. It was Karime, her eye should have given her away immediately if Ichigo hadn't been so confused. Ichigo bent down to feel her pulse.

_*Shit! There's no way a normal human can stand so many wounds, or so much abuse. What the fuck! Dammit, don't die Karime!* _He thought, then gently spoke to her, "It's ok, you're going to be alright, I got you."

Karime's heartbeat was irregular and her breathing became increasingly shallow, she was unconscious. Ichigo didn't want to pick her up from fear that he'd only aggravate her wounds, but he had no choice, he had to get her help immediately. As carefully as he could, he cradled her in his arms and shunpo-ed away to Urahara's shop.

As soon as Ichigo arrived at the Urahara's shop, he kicked the doors open and started yelling for him. Urahara and Tessai immediately stepped out from the back, followed by Ururu and Jinta. Urahara and Tessai's eyes widened at the faint, barely there, spiritual pressure emanating from Karime, even before they were able to see her face.

"Urahara-san, you have to help Karime! She's Chad's cousin, I found her fighting a hollow!"

Urahara managed to regain his composure. "Tessai-san, Ururu please take Karime-san and tend to her wounds while Ichigo brings Orihime-san." Urahara turned back to Ichigo and nodded. Ichigo didn't want to leave Karime alone but she needed Orihime's help. Before he was able to leave, Urahara spoke, "Ichigo, please don't tell Orihime who the girl is."

Ichigo's brow furrowed in confusion but he just nodded and shunpo-ed away, there would be time to ask questions later.

**A/N: So that was chapter 6! Hope you enjoyed it! Chapter 7 to come soon! ^_^**

**~Blackcat**


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